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Killer Lee Aldhouse leaves Phuket Prison on Monday for court

Murder Victim's Mother Seeks Long Sentence

Wednesday, October 23, 2013
News Analysis

PHUKET: The mother of Lee Aldhouse's murder victim, Dashawn Longfellow, has made an emotional plea for her son's killer to be jailed for a long time.

Tammy Longfellow fears that the former kickboxer known as ''Pitbull'' could receive a lighter penalty than he deserves, reduced because of a guilty plea.

She has waited and watched for three years from her home in the US for the British man accused of killing her son to be sentenced.

On Monday in Phuket Provincial Court, a judge told Aldhouse that his guilty plea would mean that any sentence delivered on November 28 would be automatically reduced by half.

Now, in a heart-wrenching outburst on Facebook, Tammy Longfellow has expressed her frustration at the prospect of Aldhouse's sentence being cut.

The case is unprecedented in many ways. The British man admits stabbing to death a former US Marine on the holiday island of Phuket, in Thailand.

At the time, when Aldhouse became a fugitive and fled Phuket for Britain, there were two lines of thinking among Thai officals.

One group, including some senior police on Phuket, could not see any justice in Thailand having to pay to keep a British man in jail for killing a non-Thai.

The other group, recognising the need for Thailand to be seen to actively support an international code of justice, went after Aldhouse, sparing no expense.

Eventually, following a protracted series of court appeals in Britain, Aldhouse was extradited in December to Thailand to face trial - the first extradition of its kind under a treaty that had been in place for 101 years.

A similar imperative for justice now applies in the case of another British murder fugitive, Michael John Taylor - better known on Phuket as ''Mick The Pom.''

Having skipped from Thailand, Taylor, 50, is holed up in the Philippines where he is reportedly boasting about how he killed his Thai girlfriend, Jantra Weangta, on Phuket in 2004.

The same Thai officials who went after Aldhouse and won him back are now probably looking closely at the Taylor case. Authorities in the Philippines are likely to be quick to agree that international justice must be the priority.

Otherwise, Thailand's reputation for a commitment to international justice suffers.

Tammy Longfellow, at such a distance from Phuket, is clearly frustrated by the circumstances emerging in the case of her son's killing.

Phuketwan covered the murder closely and a reporter even went to the morgue on Phuket on the day in 2010 that Dashawn Longfellow's body was placed into a coffin to be shipped home.

Our commitment to seeing justice done in the case remains just as strong today. So, we believe, does Thailand's.

What Tammy Longfellow needs to remember, through her grief, is that Thailand went to extraordinary length to have Lee Aldhouse extradited from Britain.

Nobody can question the commitment of Thai authorities to bring Lee Aldhouse to justice to resolve the case.

Now, the matter of Aldhouse's sentencing is in the hands of a judge, which is as it should be.

Tammy Longfellow's rage, the rage of a grieving mother, will only abate with time.

But she should never allow that rage to blind her to the extraordinary efforts that have been made, half a world away, in bringing her son's killer to court.

Here is her Facebook plea, unabridged:

AS DASHAWN LONGFELLOW'S mother how could you guys even think about giveing him less time my son son can't be here with me or his family thats basturd don't deseve less time and to think phuket you was fighting for me and my family for justice thats not doing a very good job what your just going to give up fighting please from the bottom of my heart don't give him less time i really don't no if i could handle thatmy baby boy don't get to be with me i don't get to see his face every day i have to look at a damn earn just to talk to him how do you think i feel every day wakeing up to that it's not far damnit i want him to get the macks i'am really upset with all you guys my son was a damn good kid and that man took his life he meant to kill him and no i don't think he is sorry for any thing he did for the love of god please i'am begging you as his mother and phuket i don't have faith in you guy's any more something aint right all you guys are lying to me wha't really going on out there well i no one thing R>I>P MY DEAR SON DASHAWN LONGFELLOW MOM LOVES YOU WITH EVERY THING I HAVE trust and belieave me that scum will get his cuzz you aint doing your damn job MAD MISS TAMMY LONGFELLOW

Dashawn Longfellow's sister, Bobbette Anderson, added: We don't know what the since is as of yet, but half of life would be fifty years . . . Not enough time served for murdering our hero. It's why his family is VERY upset.

Comments

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If they feel 50 years is not enough, they'd better prepare for a major disappointment. Even more so since part of his (already too limited) time will be served in the UK which will be more comfortable for him and where possibly he will be released much sooner than his Thai sentence would indicate.

Posted by stevenl on October 23, 2013 14:40

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Good luck that the sentence is up to the judge - and not the family of the victim.

Posted by Martin on October 23, 2013 17:30

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Good job on reporting PW.

My brother, who was 10, was brutally murdered. While it is right and proper for some retribution by Society (jail time, etc. for the killers); healing can only happen if we let go of our own desire for personal vengeance.

My brother was a delightful child who hurt no one. He would not have wished his killers to suffer endlessly. It's more important that the killers atone from Society and learn to turn around their own lives.

May all beings be free of suffering.

Posted by Asim on October 23, 2013 22:53

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I feel that the mother has a point. I'm not sure that it's right to automatically halve a sentence just because a killer admits to a crime when the evidence against him is overwhelming. If a killer gives himself up then maybe he is helping justice being done but it seems there is absolutely reason when the Thai judiciary has had to go to so much trouble to extradite him back to Thailand. Had he admitted the murder and given himself up the morning after then I would think some leniency would have be deserved. But not under the present circumstances.

Posted by chill on October 24, 2013 18:20


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