These Tourists Thought It Was A Good Idea To Get Drunk And Deface 800-Year-Old Thai Wall
Now both of them are facing up to 10 years in prison.
By Sadho Ram — 20 Oct 2018, 04:25 PM
Both, aged 23, got drunk in northern Thailand and, in their drunken revelry, decided that it was a good idea to vandalise an 800-year-old wall, spray-painting "Scouser Lee" and letter "B" over it
The red-brick wall near Tha Phae Gate is the main entrance to the city's old town.
Image via NextSharkCanadian tourist Brittney who was intoxicated after going out to a local bar thought "it was cool", according to her mother Tara
"She didn't know it was a monument wall — an important wall," the mother was quoted as saying by Canadian CTV News Channel, according to a report in Chiangrai Times.
Brittney and her friend Furlong Lee have admitted to defacing the ancient wall.
While Lee admitted that he wrote, "Scouser Lee" in an apparent reference to the English city of Liverpool, and Brittney told police that she wrote the letter "B" underneath it, Police Major Anon Cherdchutrakulthong was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday.
The pair was captured on a CCTV footage from a nearby cafe picking up a spray can on the ground and defacing the wall near the Tha Phae Gate in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
They were arrested at their guesthouse and paraded in front of the media for a re-enactment of the crime at the Northern Gate
Their drunken thrill can put them behind bars for up to 10 years
According to Col. Teerasak Sriprasert, chief of the Chiang Mai police, both the tourists are in custody and have been charged with vandalising registered ancient artefacts, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and USD40,000 fine.
"They admitted to the crime, saying they did it because of the thrill and they were also a little bit drunk," Col. Teerasak was quoted as saying by the BBC.