A RUSSIAN tourist who punched a Patong bar girl in the face will not face charges. Police have settled the case through mediation.

Lieutenant Jukkapong Luang-on of Kathu police station said that he was called to the Apartment Patong about 10pm on Tuesday.

The Russian tourist, aged 33, and the bar girl, aged 37, were still in the room, he said. The bar girl was bleeding from wounds to the face.

Lieutenant Jukkapong said the man had brought the woman back to his room, where they had sex.

Then the man asked her for sex of an unusual kind, the officer said. When she refused, he beat her up.

The woman ran out of the room and asked people nearby for help. A security guard at the apartment block made sure the tourist stayed in his room.

Lieutenant Jukkapong said that he negotiated a sum that the tourist paid to the woman to meet the cost of medical attention and as compensation for the beating.

Because the settlement had been a mediated solution, Lieutenant Jukkapong said that he was unwilling to disclose the names of the two people involved, or the amount involved in the settlement.

Photographs in the Thai media show the man, dressed only in black shorts, being restrained outside the apartment block, and the woman, with hair dyed auburn, dabbing her wounds and being comforted by other women.