The Case Against The Craig Family

I am Brian Anthony Craig. I live in my wife’s house, a house I paid for, designed and gave to her. I do not own and have never owned any property or business or profited from any business in Thailand. Other than my clothes, I have never owned anything
in Thailand and my bank books can prove this.

My wife (Lampang Craig) went to the Udon Thani municipal offices and several others in order to obtain an opening license for a bed and breakfast resort at her house near Nong Saeng. The authorities told her that her home was too small to be given an
opening license, but they did advise her to open and they showed her how to pay taxes, giving her advice that has now landed her in trouble.

I saw a big bird in a tiny cage in a pet shop near Robinson’s store in Udon Thani. I thought it very cruel to keep such a large bird in such poor conditions. I bought the bird and intended freeing it as I have done with many animals in Thailand.

When I took it to my wife’s house she said that it would be shot and eaten by the villagers if I freed it. We quickly built a large flying cage and my wife went to Nong Saeng council to ask what paperwork she needed to keep the bird until we could
let it go free in a safe environment.

The council came to my wife’s house and told her that the bird was being kept in perfect conditions. They never told her that she needed a license and both the Udon Thani council and the Nong Saeng council admitted to the police that they had misled
my wife into opening the resort and keeping that bird without proper papers.

We opened the resort after getting an Internet dish fitted and changing one sitting room into two bed rooms. These building works were completed about a year before the Udon Thani police came to search Lampang’s home.

During the massive raid I asked a few policemen what they were searching for and was told by one or two of the policemen that they thought it was drugs or pornographic manufacturing equipment.

I asked to see the search warrant and then asked the policeman showing it to me what the warrant specified for the search. The policeman said it covered anything and everything. This led me to believe that the police raid had no specific object to search
for, they searched every where for three or four hours and found we had no bird license. Lampang has since learned that the village headman instigated the raid on her home. The village headman had been demanding 20 thousand baht from my wife for
almost a year. My wife has always refused to pay him and many other people any money not owed or earned by them..

The same headman has complained about Lampang at Nong Saeng village meetings for over a year, petty complaints which are still continuing to this day. Loud music, that none of the houses close to Lampang’s house has ever heard. He complained about
our loud motorcycle, riding through the village just one time. He closed down our village social club, which all the villagers loved. He is constantly complaining about Lampang’s car driving too fast on the track outside the village, but
he has never complained about any other vehicle or person. He even complained about not being able to see into my wife’s house, because of its high walls and insisted that we make some holes in the walls so that he could walk the half a
kilometer from the village to Lampang’s remote and isolated house to spy on us at night.

Whenever the local police checked out his complaints, only the headman’s brother and sister-in-law supported him. Next he went to the Udon Thani police and made them believe that Lampang was doing something illegal, perhaps drugs or pornography,
he wasn’t certain. This is what Lampang has been told by villagers who have heard him boasting about how he can destroy Lampang’s world – which he has succeeding in doing.

A friend in London made a website for Lampang and her business (he made 5 before my wife accepted one of them.) He designed it and suggested the only way to get people to come to this remote area would be to offer something not many others are offering.
He did some research and saw that there were only 15 hedonistic / swinger’s resorts in Thailand. Lampang told him that she could not have swingers in her home and she hated the idea. Matthew Adams, the London based webmaster said that she
only had to make suggestions to attract guests; she never needed to make anything but promises and then just make guests a pleasant and relaxing holiday. Lampang told him to write into the site that there are no bargirls or prostitutes at her
home or in Udon Thani. She insisted that the webmaster write that “nobody should come to her home if they were looking for prostitution or bar girls.” She also added that “tipping would be against the philosophy of her parties.”
She told everyone who attended parties that no money should ever be asked for or offered to anyone for any reason during a party. “We do it all for fun or not at all.” That was her motto. Some of the locals who attended the parties were
doctors, lawyers and business people. We even had couples from Pattaya and Bangkok, they loved the idea of a place like this. Most were liberated, freedom-seeking hedonists. We only allowed local single women into the parties if the party was
too small and locals begged to come to our parties, some even offered money to gain entrance.

During the first year of opening we had about 14 parties and during one party a group of lady boys attended to put on a dancing and then a comedy show. Later in the year one of those comedian lady boys started to ask Lampang for money and she refused
him and several other people, including the village headman.

It seemed like everyone wanted easy money. Lampang never made any money out of her parties. She believed that she may have made money one day, but during the 7 months that she opened she made a loss of over one and half million baht. The police closed
her business before it even started. Her first time of being open lasted only seven months and only about 30 visitors came and most were friends and family of Brian Anthony Craig.

There have never been any swingers at our parties. That word was used to attract people to this remote, non-tourist area. Every one that came loved it here. Most guests were from the professional classes, doctors, lawyers and business people. Lampang’s
home is remote and very private. There was zero impact on the local community. Many Thai people wanted to come to Lampang’s parties. None ever wanted money; they wanted drinks and a swim, dancing and food. None of those who attended the parties
were prostitutes; Lampang never had any bar girls at her parties. Like it says on the web site, “There are no prostitutes here and if that is what you are looking for then do not come here. Go to Bangkok or Pattaya, but do not come to Udon
Thani.” The police have a copy of the web site, it should be simple to view that copy and see that Lampang is telling the truth.

In court, the prosecutor held many pornographic photos. Lampang and I had never seen them before, he announced that only the photos with turned down edges were relevant to this case. The judge looked at every single photo several times. I noticed one
of a dildo and many others that were never on my wife’s computer. This was just a trick to paint us black. The lady boy came to court with his mother and told the court that he liked Lampang and Brian Craig, stating that he had no problems
with us. This was a man hell bent on putting my wife in prison, but nobody asked why he was doing this to Lampang and Brian. One must remember that this is a cross dressing gay man, that admitted in court, and was cautioned, to taking illegal
substances. He also admitted that he and his mother had been trying to get 50 thousand baht from Lampang and don’t forget that he also admitted to being a male whore. My translator thought that the lady boy was very ugly and he told me that
he also seemed vague and a little confused in his speech.

The lady boy’s mother sat about two meters behind her son, she was coaching and cursing him throughout the trial. My police translator stopped her twice, but she carried on. The judge never stopped her and my wife’s lawyer never tried to stop
her. My wife’s lawyer never followed through with the obvious like the admission to being drugged-up whilst giving evidence. He never followed up on the blackmailing either. The obvious thing to have said was, “If Lampang had paid
you the money you would not be here, so why did she not pay him?” Lampang was not at all worried by the lady boy’s accusations. She had used her phone and recorded one mother asking for 50 thousand baht. Lampang asks on that recording,
“Why did he tell the police that he was working for me as a prostitute?”

The mother replies … “The police frightened that statement out; they would not listen to the truth.” The lady boy then said that he was mistaken, Ning had offered that 50 thousand baht to prevent him coming to court. The translator told me
that his mother had just told him to say those words. The lady boy went on to say… Two of Lampang’s girl friends had gone to him that morning and begged him not to do this to their friend. My wife had no idea that someone had done this,
but it is something any friend may have wanted to do. The judge looked angry and pointed at my wife saying, “I have a suspicion that there has been an attempt at witness tampering and therefore have no alternative but to send you Lampang
Craig to Udon Thani Central Prison.”

There was never a chance for my wife to refute the allegation. The judge stormed from the court. I’m told that as a co-owner of Lampang’s home, I will be on trial again with her on the 16th to the 18th of this month (December 2008). I have
never owned anything but my clothes in Thailand. I do not suppose that will make a difference to the outcome of this trial.

My wife has been in the prison for almost three months. Ning (Lampang) had one-and-a-half meter beautiful long black hair. It was part of her pride. The prison wardens held her down and hacked it off. When she cried and protested, saying that she was
only in the prison under suspicion and that she was innocent, the wardens said that they would throw her into the sewerage tanks. Sshe sat and sobbed as they hacked off almost a meter of her hair. I love my wife and I loved her hair. They have
taken far more from us than Ning’s hair. They have taken our lives and twisted them until we screamed.

I’m told that fine quality human hair can be sold in London for a fortune. Lampang had thought this sewerage tank to be just a threat. She now knows of six or more girls from Laos and from Thailand that have been punished with the sewerage tanks
and she can prove it. I think the risk of disease must be very high.

I have asked lawyers and police about the inhuman way in which prisoners are being treated. They all know about the tank punishment. I wonder if the Court of Human Rights knows about it or even cares?

Ning has told me not to make a fuss, keep quiet don’t speak to anyone or she will be severely punished. The last girls had 4 days of the tank punishment just for arguing.

The room where they keep my wife has over 100 girls sleeping there. She is next to the toilets; she has not slept in all the time she’s been there. Twice now the prison ran out of drinking water, both times for three days.

They are going to destroy my wife. She says that she wants to leave Thailand. She fears for our four year old daughter. We have borrowed almost two million baht during the last year or so. We have been reduced to beggars; we have no money left at all.
This case against us is a lie fabricated in order to destroy us. It started with people wanting extortion money and that has never stopped. I’m still paying.

We have been targets to every bloodsucker in the area. It looked like Lampang was rich, but she never made a single baht during the short time she tried to bring tourists here. She begs me not get put into jail. She says that my begging on the Internet
is the only thing keeping her alive.

She sobs her heart out when I go to see her. Last time she talked of our daughter Caroline …”Please don’t come in here Tony. If you do then poor Caroline will become just another flower of Isaan, ripe for the picking in a few years time. The
wardens tell her that she will never see her daughter again or her husband.”

The British Embassy started to send me lists of expensive Bangkok lawyers. I told them every detail of the case against us. I begged them to help my 4 year old daughter, told them she has a British passport and needs to get to a safe country. They have
stopped answering my emails now. The whole world has turned its back on the Craig family.

That vicious lady boy. Why did he do it to us? A self confessed blackmailer and a self confessed substance abuser, ugly and sometimes dresses as a woman. Nobody ever wanted him to come here after his comedy act; he only came two or three times, just wandered
in with some girls. Ning refused entry to him and the two girls the last time he came, he smelled of glue and Ning says that often means ya-bah is nearby. She was so careful, yet here we are accused of running a brothel, the very
thing we both hated about Thailand, the very thing that the resort was dead against.

That huge police raid and the thirty media men were here looking for drugs or porn making equipment, but all they found was that we had no license for a bird. The rest they made up. I’m told by other policemen that this case is a face saving revenge
trial and that the raid on Ning’s house made the police look wrong about us in front of the ever filming media and that makes us a target. I hope that they are wrong, but it would explain why our lawyer never followed through with the cross
examination of that lady.

One also has to ask, “Is this impoverished, cross dressing, self confessed male whore, drug abusing, lady boy/gay man, (forgive my zealousness) a fine upstanding typical honest Thai citizen and true representative of Thailand? Was he doing his moral
and patriotic best to keep Thailand’s fine morality pure and virginal? Or was there some other motivation? He says that my wife offered him 50 thousand baht in order for him not to come to court… Will any sane person believe that this
extremely impoverished moron refused this money?

Ning has a mobile phone recording. On the recording is a woman she’s asking for 50 thousand baht and telling my wife that the lady boy and two girls said that they were prostitutes because the police would not accept any other true answers and
the three were very frightened. No prostitute in Thailand would incriminate themselves by admitting the crime of prostitution to a police officer, but here we have three in one catch … convenient? Luck? Or is there some other reason why two
respectable girls and a not so respectable lady boy told the police exactly what they wished to hear. I’m suspicious about these confessions. The two girls phoned my wife and explained why they had admitted to the police that they were
working as prostitutes, “Threats and fear, fear of being held for a year until the case came to court.” They apologized and the two girls disappeared, even though my wife begged them to come to court and tell the truth. Only the lady
boy aided by his vindictive mother wanted to hurt Ning, I wish she had paid the bastard. I’m told that with a good and honest lawyer we could turn this case around and be free to leave Thailand. I will have to keep on begging on the Internet.
If anyone out there has any ideas any intellectual thoughts that could help us or if anyone knows of a lawyer that does Pro bono work, we would be in tears of joy and thank you forever.

We have never harmed a soul in Thailand. I have taught in the local school and paid for part of its construction. Lampang and I have many certificates of merit for our good deeds within the community.

We have fed whole schools, tended the old and sick, fed and nursed them. Temples have given us certificates of merit for giving electricity or paying for there construction. My wife would stop the car whenever she saw old people in rags, homeless and
destitute. She gave away millions of baht and even now, she never stops caring for others. In the prison she has shared her food with those who have nothing. She is a giver and so am I; we gave everything we could to this community.

ONE SHOULD NOW ASK IF THAT LADY BOY HAS EVER DONE A SINGLE THING IN HIS WHOLE LIFE TO HELP OTHERS, THOSE IN NEED. THE ANSWER WILL REFLECT THE TRUTH AND HIS LIFE’S UGLY LACK OF MORALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND PHILANTHROPY.

My wife is a true philanthropist, she has never stopped helping others, not even in Udon Thani prison. There are three babies in the prison each has been warmly clothed and covered at night with warm quilts bought by me from Robinsons. That warmth came
from my wife’s heart, I just have to find and supply the money. She has fed old people in the prison, this is her way, she is a truly good Thai citizen and a perfect Buddhist.

We are Brian Anthony (Tony) Craig, four year old daughter Caroline Craig (She speaks four languages) and Lampang (Ning) Craig. We are without hope, destitute and in tears. We are begging for help and we beg that Thailand look at this case and realize
that the Craig family has been punished enough. We have lost our home our money and my wife is loosing her mind. My daughter cries and begs me to free her Mummy, but I have only suicide left as viable option. The only thing that stops me from
taking my now miserable life is the thought of my wife and daughter being at the mercy of Isaan’s (northeastern Thailand) system.

The flowers of Isaan are Thailand’s biggest money earners. I am a UK farang; I have spent 25 million baht in Isaan in five years and I am just one of thousands in the Udon Thani area alone.

I see many new “palaces-of-farang” being built in this area, Isaan girls bringing wealth to this impoverished area. Thailand’s tourist and those farang who spend all their life’s savings here, people like me who spend fortunes
will stop soon. That money will be gone and the billions of tourist dollars will stop. All will end when the flowers of Isaan are no more. I for one would like to see that day. I should also like to see the effect it has on the rich officials
of this area, those who care nothing for the poor of Isaan or Thailand. Show me any other poor farmer’s daughter who has given so much to the people and to the local infrastructure, like my wife helping the building of the schools and temples,
teaching with me for free. My wife is a good woman and she’s a very rare and fine example of Thai and Buddhist goodness. Just ask her community, the school teachers, the monks the old people, the people without limbs. Look at the many certificates
of merit awarded to her, she never asked for them, never wanted to show them off. Go to the two offices that misled her by not offering her a license, but telling her she could keep that bird and open her tiny resort..

She was misled by the officials, she was never offered any guidance from the village headman, he just demanded money from her, just like many others. I feel it is they who should be on trial not Lampang Craig. We are on our knees, we will both be before
that judge on the 16th to the 18th, we are told that to defend ourselves is a waste of time. The police ant this case and without a real lawyer they will put us both in prison. We are told we face a maximum sentence of 15 years each. The Daily
Mail in the UK reported a grossly exaggerated version of events just over a year ago. We have 7 bedrooms one of them is ours. Six bedrooms, the chief of Udon Thani police reported that we had had seven thousand British couples staying in our resort
during those months we were open. Anyone good at maths? Anyone good at seeing a set up. I’m told that if I make a fuss Ning will get hurt, well, they cannot hurt us anymore than they have.

The trial ends on the 18th I pray that we are both at liberty to leave this Land of Tears. PS I have written three books, I could do with the money they could make. Anyone know of a publisher. PSS Ning and I never broke any Thai laws.

Ask the police prosecution why he showed all those sex photos? He announced that only the ones with turned down corners have any relevance to this case. Then why include the others, none of which I have ever seen before. Cheap tricks like this are not
needed where the truth is sought.

My wife and I have never employed a prostitute. The ethos of the resort was against all forms of prostitution and that stance was one of the major reasons why people choose to holiday at my wife’s beautiful resort. The price per night seemed expensive,
but it included all food, all drinks, fantastic trips out to other regions, free transportation and English drivers, free hotel bills whilst on trips to other areas. My wife failed to make money at this venture because so few people came, but
those who did come loved it here, I will submit all Thai bank books and my UK bank books, which will show I am overdrawn and have been for two years. We have existed on the charity of good people, but I now owe my friends almost two million baht.
We will have to forget our beautiful home here and we will loose everything.

Thailand cost me almost 25 million baht in 5 years and this case has cost me that money and also all I have borrowed. We will loose everything in Thailand, we are destroyed. Our intention is to move to the UK as soon as possible, a place where I can ensure
nothing like this will harm my family ever again. None of us will return to Thailand, I will forbid my daughter from returning to this country.

Stickman’s thoughts:

This is a very complicated case and I am reluctant to say too much. But there *is* much more to it than what you say. The way your wife has been treated is clearly questionable if what you say is true. The problem is that you did promote a swingers’ resort just like the one you used to run in Spain before you came to Thailand!!! Here is the link, Tony. ThaiParadiseResort.

I also don’t believe many of the numbers you talk of. You spend 25 million baht in Isaan in 5 years? That is 100,000 baht a week for 5 years. How on earth did you spend that much?

I pity the situation that you find yourself in, but knowing a number of facts that you chose not to include, or to overlook, I don’t like the way you try to come across as an innocent victim. This all said and done, I do wish you the best of luck.

Finally, why the hell do you call your wife “Lampang Craig”? That is seriously weird!