BRITISH kickboxer Lee Aldhouse, wanted for murder on Phuket, will appear before a video extradition hearing this week, a British newspaper reports.

Aldhouse, 28, suspected of knifing to death former US Marine DaShawn Longfellow in the early hours of August 14 after losing a bar fight, is to appear before magistrates by videolink from Wandsworth Jail on Wednesday, says the Sunday Mercury.

No details have been revealed about how the hearing will be conducted but Thai authorities are known to have been meticulous in compiling the extradition dossier.

It is believed that US authorites are equally keen to have the British man returned to face a count of having murdered the young American war veteran, who had been awarded a Purple Heart.

The British kickboxer, from near Birmingham, fled ''the paradise holiday isle of Phuket'' and was arrested when his flight from Singapore landed at Heathrow Airport on August 18, the newspaper says.

''Aldhouse, whose ring nickname was Pitbull, moved to Thailand in 2006 to study the deadly Muay Thai fighting style,'' says the Sunday Mercury.

''He had reportedly been part of the Thai boxing circuit until a year ago, when sources in the Far East claim he 'went off the rails'''.

Back in August, Aldhouse challenged Longfellow to a fist fight at Phuket's Freedom Bar in the southern Phuket district of Rawai, but lost the fight.

Security camera footage obtained and posted on YouTube by Phuketwan shows a man who looks like Aldhouse demanding and being given two knives by staff at a 7-Eleven convenience store close to the bar.

Soon after, Longfellow was allegedly ambushed and stabbed to death when he returned to his Phuket apartment, not far from the bar.

According to the British newspaper: ''Unemployed Aldhouse was a regular at the bar and was said to have been known for 'getting drunk and picking fights and bragging that he's invincible''.

Police believe Aldhouse fled Phuket soon after the killing by road, crossing from Thailand into Cambodia before travelling to Singapore, where he caught the flight to Heathrow.

''A source close to the case told the Sunday Mercury: 'Aldhouse got involved in a similar incident two years ago. On that occasion, he attacked someone in a bar and knocked him out, but there was no further action.

''He has a Thai girlfriend, and he was known to use steroids. He had a very short temper, and people were scared of him.''

The Superintendent of Police in the southern Phuket district of Chalong, Colonel Vichid Intharasorn, said today: ''We are very confident that we will see Lee Aldhouse back in Thailand soon.

''The evidence is conclusive and we have worked very hard on this case.''

Diplomatic contacts have told Phuketwan that the fact that a murder conviction in Thailand could carry the death penalty and that Britain no longer supports capital punishment would not necessarily impede the extradition process.

CNN combined with Phuketwan to offer a summary of the case and the 7-Eleven footage which can be viewed at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/17/thailand.kickboxing.killer/?hpt=T2#fbid=j8b3WNTelG3&wom=false

The 7-Eleven footage is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvuYakEINGg