POLICE and security guards at the scene have confirmed that a British man who worked in the property industry was killed in his office-home near the well-known Tesco-Lotus supermarket intersection on Phuket today.

Officers are treating the case as a murder, the second apparent murder of an expat on the island in four days.

Police named the dead man as Ian Kenneth Stuart, 60, a financial adviser with St James Properties Co, Ltd.

Mr Stuart, according to police and the security guard, was killed in a three-storey shophouse block that fronts the road to Patong, just beyond the busy intersection with the Bypass Road.

The building is close to the Royal arch that crosses the road and is familiar to everyone who takes that route between Patong and Phuket City.

Police said Mr Stuart lived alone in an apartment above the property business.

Precise circumstances of the murder have yet to be confirmed. His body was found about 9.30am, reports said, possibly by fellow workers arriving at the office.

Any connection to the death on Thursday evening in Patong of property developer Francis Alex Degioanni, 34, has yet to be established and seems unlikely.

Mr Degioanni, a Canadian, died in a flurry of bullets fired by what seems to be a professional hitman, who strolled to the assignment just as daylight was fading.

Today's murder victim appears to have been battered to death, police say.

His notebook computer and his mobile telephone are unaccounted for, presumably taken by the killer or killers.

Police believe robbery was not the motive because expensive gold jewellery was not taken.

Murders of expats on Phuket are rare. However, island police now have to deal with the unsettled reaction triggered by two expat killings between Thursday and Monday.

The apparent murder is a challenge for the newly appointed British honorary consul, Martin Carpenter, whose background ls in golf course management and public relations.

Despite reports that the case involving Mr Degioanni had been taken over by more senior police from Bangkok or Surat Thani, island police told Phuketwan today that the investigation was still in their hands.



Patong Killers Strolled to Date with Death
Photo Album How did it happen? Phuketwan went to the scene of the killing of a Canadian property developer in Patong and pieced together details of the murder.
Patong Killers Strolled to Date with Death

Update: Phuket Shooter Kills Expat Developer
Updated report An expat resident has been shot dead in Patong, police have told Phuketwan. The victim was a 34 year old property developer from Canada.
Update: Phuket Shooter Kills Expat Developer