Family row blamed for murder of wealthy Briton and wife in Thailand

THAILAND - The tension had been building for months, maybe years. In the days before Alan Hogg, the wealthy Scottish businessman, and his Thai wife Nott, were killed and then buried in the garden of their home, relatives have revealed that the relationship between Nott and her brother Warut Satchakit, who has since been charged with the murders, had soured beyond repair.

For 20 years, Nott’s favourite older brother had lived in a house on her and her husband’s expansive property where he worked as the chief gardener, looking after the plants, the fruit orchard, the chickens and the 15 cows. According to numerous neighbors, Hogg and Satchaikit tended the 13-hectare plot of land sidebyside, though not always harmoniously. But Nott’s and Satchakit’s youngest brother Thanom Suddan, 53, said Nott had been planning to kick her 63-year-old brother off the property, after the family conflict became too much. “She visited me the Saturday before she was killed to tell me she could no longer stand Warut,” Suddan told the Guardian, as he sat by their bodies which had been brought to the local Phrae Thammaran temple. “He was creating too many arguments and not looking after the land properly. He didn’t even tell them when the dogs died. She told me she was going to ask him to leave.”

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tension between Satchakit and his Scottish brother-in-law had also been “building for many, many years, there were many small arguments over the garden because Alan was very demanding”. Money too was reportedly an issue, though all the land was in the name of the couple’s daughter Robyn. “Warut and Nott were so close, closer than any of us brothers and sisters, they did everything together,” said Suddan. “He had worked for them for 20 years so had nowhere else to go, and wouldn’t be able to get another job because he is old.” He emphasised, however, that “she didn’t seem scared for her life, not at all,” he said.

But two weeks previously, Thai police allege Satchakit had sought out a contract killer for his sister and her husband in Wang Chin district, agreeing to pay three men 50,000 baht to carry out the murder. One man had eventually lost his nerve, but at 6pm on Tuesday, police claim two people met Satchakit at the house. They allege one shot the Scottish businessman once in the chest as he fed the ducks at his pond and that the other tied up Nott in the garage where Satchakit beat his sister over the head with a metal wrench. Police claim the trio then hurriedly wiped down the blood near the swimming pool and then buried the bodies in the leafy creek at the back of the property, digging holes two metres deep with a small digger.

(The Guardian)