Man flings wife from seventh-floor balcony during argument because he was frustrated by coronavirus lockdown
A British tourist was arrested for allegedly flinging his Thai wife off a seventh-floor balcony after he grew agitated about Thailand's coronavirus lockdown.
The man, 46-year-old Dave Mitchell, was detained on April 29 after throwing his 56-year-old partner Sukanda of the seventh floor of the apartment block in Rayong in eastern Thailand. When paramedics arrived to treat her, she reportedly told the police that her English husband had thrown her over during an argument.
The woman fell in between one and two levels and luckily landed on a protruding roof from an opposite building that saved her life. Sukanda was still conscious after the fall and was immediately rushed to the hospital on a stretcher to be treated for her injuries, according to The Sun.
After she was taken to be treated, authorities spent almost two hours trying to talk to the bare-chested Dave who had locked himself inside the apartment that overlooked the ocean. The tattooed Brit was seen sitting in the balcony with his hands clasped together, seemingly praying.
Neighbors then intervened and helped authorities to force their way into the room and arrest Dave. The police revealed that Dave's injured wife had been admitted to the hospital and suffered from a fractured hip and a dislocated arm.
Dave had revealed to the authorities that he had been getting stressed and very agitated after flights back to the UK were canceled given the coronavirus pandemic. He had allegedly been getting very frustrated having to stay indoors inside the apartment all the time.
He was struggling to deal with Thailand's strict lockdown measures which include a 10 pm curfew ban and closure of all bars. He had also started to argue a lot with his wife. Police Major Narongsak Trairat, Deputy Governor of the Ban Chang district police station shared that officers were waiting to interview the injured wife.
"The emergency call was made at approximately 2.30 pm reporting that a foreigner was quarreling with his Thai wife," Trairat said. "The English man said that he started arguing with his wife because he was stressed that he was locked down and could not go back to the country because of the pandemic."
Trairat said that "the wife fell down from the condo on the seventh floor and was badly injured while the foreigner was on the balcony suffering with insanity."
The police chief added that they had taken the help of neighbors in the apartment to block to communicate with Dave. It was after almost two hours that he began to relax and calm down.
"The English man said that he started arguing with his wife because he was stressed that he was locked down and could not go back to the country because of the pandemic," Trairat shared.
"Police officers detained the suspect at the Ban Chang police station and waited for him to calm himself before investigating and collecting evidence for further proceedings," he continued.
According to data from the John Hopkins University, there have been around 3,196,664 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the globe so far with around 227,705 deaths worldwide. Thailand has seen around 2,954 confirmed cases of the virus and around 54 deaths.