ABOVE: Few details are visible in previously released security camera footage captured early March 11 outside the Tai Pan nightclub on Phuket where a fatal stabbing involving an Australian expat occurred.
Phuket police said yesterday CCTV footage of an Australian expat fatally stabbing a Patong nightclub guard in March has convinced them to drop the murder charge against him.
Mark Pendlebury, 59, was released on bail against the wishes of the victim’s family two days after he fatally stabbed 26-year-old Sanya Khluewaengmon in the early hours of March 11 outside “Tai Pan,” a popular Patong beach nightclub.
“After reviewing the CCTV footage recently provided, we have decided to not pursue the murder charge against Pendlebury,” police Lt. Col. Jessada Saengsuree of the Kathu police said yesterday in a Phuket News report.
The police did not release the footage, saying they handed it over to a public prosecutor to consider before filing charges against Pendlebury.
In subsequent interviews, Pendlebury said was angry that night over the senseless beating of a disabled Danish vet by a group of Thai men when he saw an altercation underway outside the nightclub and decided to get involved.
After Sanya, who worked as club security, told him to stop filming the incident, Pendlebury claims he was pushed to the ground and believed he was going to die as a group of men “stomped” him.
He had a long shiv on him he used to stab and kill Sanya.
Pendlebury has since been fined THB500 for carrying the knife in a public place, The Phuket News reports.
Related:
Australian who killed man at nightclub freed on bail
Australian expat accused of stabbing Patong nightclub worker
