In what can hardly be called a surprising move, Bali prison escapee Shaun Davidson, 33, is thought to be hiding out in Pattaya, Thailand’s bad boy seaside paradise.
After tunneling out of Bali’s Kerobokan jail on June 19 with three other inmates, Australian Davidson supposedly used one of his five known Facebook accounts to check into places all over the world, including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Dubai, reported Courier Mail.
We’ve checked the Facebook account in question, under the name Matthew Rageone Ridler, but any check-ins may have been removed or only visible to friends.
Police monitoring the accounts believe the check-ins were only to throw them off his trail.
Evidence they have collected related to Davidson’s past as a Muay Thai fighter—he taught classes to other inmates while in the Balinese jail—and his connections to motorcycle gang The Mongols have led them to believe that either his motorcycle gang brethren or fellow Muay Thai fighters are housing him in a safe place in Pattaya and may have given him a new identity.
International motorcycle gangs such as The Mongols, Hells Angels, and Bandidos have active chapters in Pattaya and are often linked to the drug trade and other illegal pursuits there.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Davidson was only scheduled to be in the Balinese prison for another 10 weeks when he made his daring escape. He was serving a one year sentence for using someone else’s passport but was scheduled to be repatriated to his hometown of Perth on release and was facing drug charges there.
Davidson made his daring escape with two drug trade convicts, Malaysian Tee Kok King and Indian Sayed Muhammad, and Bulgarian card skimmer Dimitar Nikolon Iliev.
Iliev and Said were caught just three days after escaping at a resort in East Timor. King is still on the run.
The Courier Mail called Pattaya “arguably the fugitive capital of the world” and a good place for “rubbing shoulders with fellow criminals.”
Thai officials who have been trying to turn Pattaya, often called “sin city,” into a family resort town, are probably are going to be none too pleased to hear their seaside escape referred to as a haven for criminals and fugitives.
