‘I want my son to have his daddy again’:
Wife and ex-wife of the two Kiwis jailed overseas after an incident with police tell David Fisher of their fears for the much-loved dads
Tears well up in Rebecca Day’s eyes when asked how she approaches a future with her husband Hamish locked up in a Thai jail alongside his brother Mattson after a roadside altercation with a police officer.
“What the heck am I going to do? I just can’t think about things like that but in the moments I have, I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”
There was the terrible moment she broke the news to their son Jake, 9.
“I explained they are not alone — he’s with Matt — and we are going to try everything we can to get them home.”
She said to their son: “It could be weeks, it could be months.” Jake then asked: “Could it be years?”
“And I said, ‘it might be’. “What is our son going to do? Boys need their dad. There will be some things where I will try my best but I can’t replace his dad, as much as I will give it everything.
“I just want to get him home. And I just want Jake to have his daddy again.”
Hamish and Mattson “Matt” Day, 36 and 38, are in prison in Thailand facing charges of robbery, obstruction of police duty, physical attack against a policeman, driving without a licence and bribery.
The incident that landed them in jail took place during a trip the brothers had taken to Thailand — their first together since the men married more than a decade ago, had children and started businesses.
It was a country both had previously visited with their families, having had such positive experiences they were excited about returning.
Rebecca Day, 37, and Matt Day’s former wife but close friend Nikki Gray, 41, told the Weekend Herald the brothers were anticipating soaking up what Phuket had to offer, surfing and indulging Hamish Day’s passion for cable wake parks. While there, the men had also planned medical treatments at a Thai private hospital for old sporting injuries.
And then, just over a week into their trip, they experienced the horror of discovering the men they know so well as dedicated fathers — Hamish to son Jake, 9, and Matt to sons Lachlan, 11, and Cooper 9 — and loving husbands had been arrested.
Just an hour before the incident unfolded, both dads had video-called home and spoken with their children, walking with the phone to show where they were staying and how close it was to the beach.
The call was just one of many made by both men in the week before events spun horribly out of control in central Phuket.
On those calls, Hamish and his brother Matt — the name by which he is known rather than his first name, Oscar — told their children and wider family of adventure sports, great food and wonderful weather.
Nikki Gray recalled the last call to their sons: “They’d been down and had a surf at the beach and they’d had a nice lunch and were just telling the kids how happy they were to be there.”
ABOUT 4PM on Saturday a fortnight ago, they were arrested. Details of what unfolded are before the courts, limiting what can be reported.
What is known has come from two sources — a video of an altercation between the men and a Thai police officer and a later press conference in which Phuket police chief Major General Sinlert Sukhum set out the events alleged by police.
In the video, Matt Day can be seen restraining a Thai police officer at the roadside. At one stage, Hamish Day appeared to be proffering the officer’s firearm in an open outstretched hand.
During the press conference, Sinlert said the men had been ordered to stop by the officer after riding motorcycles at speed past the Chalong police station in Phuket.
He said the men did not stop, were pursued and — when they pulled up — were told they had broken traffic law. He said a request for their licences led to an offer of a bribe which was rejected and the pair then attempting to walk off.
Sinlert said this was seen as an attempt to escape, leading to the officer using his mobile phone to take photographs of the men. He said the Day brothers became angry and one of the pair wrestled the officer to the ground, during which time the officer’s gun was taken. At some stage
Instantly I knew something was wrong . . . I thought maybe one of them had an accident, had come off their scooter or something.
Nikki Gray
in the struggle the pistol discharged, but no one was hurt.
It was Rebecca Day who first learned of their plight. “It was Sunday night around 10pm and I hadn’t heard from [Hamish] for over a day. I thought that was odd.”
It was a thought that had come to mind during the day but she had sought to rationalise her worry, telling herself the brothers were in an area with no mobile phone reception.
Then a message from Hamish Day dropped — just a few short sentences that sent life spiralling out of control.
“We’re in a bit of a situation but can’t talk right now,” he told her. REBECCA DAY: “I think I went into shock and I started shaking. My mind was just reeling with the possibilities.”
She immediately called the men’s parents, Laurence and Katrina Day, to let them know but the details were bare. Even a short phone call with Hamish did little to ease a growing sense of panic.
In those few minutes, he was able to tell her they were in police custody and to ask that she rally support for the legal process to come.
Laurence and Katrina Day called Nikki Gray early the next morning — she and Matt Day separated in 2021, remaining close friends — to ask her to come to their home. “Instantly I knew something was wrong,” Gray said. She saw her children off to school “with a knot in the pit of my stomach” and headed for the Days’ home. Anxiety rising, she said she deliberately avoided turning on the news. “I thought maybe one of them had an accident, had come off their scooter or something.”
On arriving, she was met by Rebecca Day and their parents-in-law. Media reports were starting to filter in from Thailand, including the startling video, which she watched.
Gray: “I just couldn’t believe it.