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A British backpacker was allegedly stabbed in the neck with a broken beer bottle while defending his female friend in a bar in Thailand.
Hugo Mooney, from Bristol, had been drinking with his friends when the row erupted at the Bamboo Bar on the ‘Full Moon Party’ island of Koh Pha Ngan on January 28.
Israeli national Eliran Alias allegedly began harassing Hugo’s friend Charlene Driscoll while she was walking to the toilet.
The British tourist said he tried to intervene and defend his friend, causing Eliran to fly into a rampage.
The attacker allegedly smashed a beer bottle and plunged the sharp end into Hugo’s neck – sending blood across the room in front of horrified tourists.
Footage shows Hugo lying on the bar floor as his friends and onlookers attempted to stem the bleeding from his neck.
Blood splattered across the room (Picture: ViralPress)
Hugo’s neck was bandaged up tightly to heal (Picture: ViralPress)
By chance, a Canadian doctor who was on holiday happened to be in the bar and he performed first aid – saving Hugo from almost certain death.
Police later arrested the suspect – another young holidaymaker partying on the island – before he was released on bail a couple of days later.
The investigating officer, Police Lieutenant Patcharapol Wanghin from the Koh Pha Ngan Police Station, said: ‘The investigation into the attack is continuing. It will progress according to the law. We need both sides of the case for it to be fair to everyone. There is no corruption.’
Hugo said earlier this week: ‘The attack happened at around 11.30 PM. I was at the bar with six friends.
‘I saw a man acting very strange with girls throughout the night, trying to grab their hands as they walked by and whispering in their ears.
‘My friend mentioned that he had been behaving similarly with her all night, and around 11 PM, I saw him try to whisper and grab her.
He had to get stitches in his neck and on his ear (Picture: ViralPress)
‘I stood in front of him and said, “Go away. Leave her alone. No one likes you being weird.” I turned around with my friends and walked to a dancefloor.
‘The next thing I know, he ran towards me with a broken glass, cut my neck, and fled.’
Hugo said at first he thought he had just been punched until his friends began screaming as he bled.
He added: ‘When I was stabbed, it took around one and a half hours before I was at the hospital. The police did not arrive until the morning and told me to write a statement, which they obtained around 12 PM.
‘At 2pm, two police officers arrived and they took me to the police station without any consent from the doctor.
‘They placed me in the police room with the man who tried to kill me, without any warning. They tried to get me to speak with him, but I was in shock and said, “No, get him away from me.”‘
He had been defending a female friend from the man who stabbed him (Picture: ViralPress)
Hugo said he thought the police ‘wanted him to make a deal with him’, and told him to tell the story again.
He explained: ‘They tried to give me confidence, saying that this man could be in jail for at least two years and be banned from Thailand, while I could get compensation.
‘However, I kept saying that I don’t care about money, I just wanted him in jail. When I left the police station to go to the hospital, one of his friends attempted to speak with me.
“He told my friend at the police station that he would offer me 100,000 Euros if I dropped the case, but I said no I wanted the man in jail.’
Hugo said he ‘understands’ the man has a lot of money and is now free, and speculates he may have paid the police.
His wounds are healing, but Hugo said he is still ‘angry and upset’, as well as a bit scared.
His arm was also sliced open in the attack (Picture: ViralPress)
He said: ‘The police have never called me or contacted me since I was released from the hospital.
‘Then when it was on the local news, they tried to call me last night to get me to come to the police station. And I said no. They asked me where I lived, but I did not want to tell them.
‘About 30 minutes later, they showed up to where I work and asked the staff where I live. So I feel a little bit harassed by the police now.
‘I’m the victim. But I don’t feel like that anymore. I don’t know who to trust or speak to.’
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Describing the police’s actions upon arriving at his workplace, Mooney added: ‘They spoke to my staff and inquired about my whereabouts, asking how I was and if they could speak to me.
‘However, my staff informed them that I was too sick and too scared to speak with them.
‘First, they said I needed to come to take a photo, so I asked what kind of photo. Then they asked me to come in to sign something. They changed their story straightaway.’
Hugo’s Thai friend Chanjira Witthayabumrung, a witness to the alleged attack, said he is angry at the police that the suspect was released.
Chanjira said: ‘The man almost killed someone else. He was arrested for interrogation but he was released. But our friend almost died. Where is the justice in that?
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