Denis Leahy, a man with a violent history, purportedly murdered a female bar worker in Thailand and later returned to Dublin where he committed the heinous act of stabbing his former partner, Rose Kenny. He was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of Kenny.
The bloodied body of a young Thai prostitute lies with her hands bound behind her back as investigators arrive at the gruesome scene. Irish taxi driver Denis Leahy was arrested and charged with the 24 year old's murder as he apparently fled for the Cambodian border.
Shaven headed Dubliner Leahy, 40, is accused of killing the woman, believed to have been stabbed up to 20 times, in his apartment in the tourist city of Pattaya. He was arrested after falling asleep in a cab when the driver became suspicious of his injuries and called police from his mobile. Officers pounced when the cabbie pulled into a petrol station to fill up and Leahy was later charged with murder.
The victim, a bar worker named Bupha Tanchiangpin, was stabbed 15 times in the back and another five times in her neck and face. When her naked body was found by police her throat had also been slashed. After the arrest Leahy was taken back to Pattaya and, if found guilty of murder, could face a death sentence by lethal injection. Bupha, from the poor province of Udon Than in the north east, was found in the Irishman's apartment in Pattaya, which is 80 miles east of Bangkok.
Bupha's body was discovered on Sunday evening by a security guard. Police believed she may have been killed in an argument over money. A security guard at the scene claimed residents in the apartment block complained about noise from an argument.
He jump out of a second floor window, and jump on to a Yahama motorcycle.
The guard said when he and his colleagues went to the apartment a man escaped and sped off on a motorbike. He added: "I saw Mr Denis take the girl to his apartment. "A short while later I rushed to their apartment after hearing her screams for help. "But then it went quiet. Then I went round the back and saw Mr Denis jump out of a second floor window, and jump on to a Yahama motorcycle and drive off." Cops found the suspected murder weapon, a bloodstained Army style machete, in the room where Bupha's body was.
Leahy is believed to have lived in the apartment with his 28 year old Thai wife Khun Janyar. She arrived home from her job as a fishmonger at a local market just after the police and was stunned to find the bloody scene. Detectives said she had no idea where Leahy was and did not know the dead woman.
Police Major Chalerm Kriatsirimaak, who is leading the investigation, said: "Mr Denis had been living here with a Thai common law wife Janyar. "He was a taxi driver in Ireland. She sold fish at the market. "The room was quite smashed. We do not know what it was over." Immigration police at airports and border points around Thailand were on red alert and prepared for Leahy.
A police press conference is expected to take place later today. Yesterday a Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said: "We have no information on the man in question at the moment, but his family have been in contact with our office in Dublin." The Department expect to have more information today from colleagues in the Irish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pattaya is one of the biggest centres for tourism, with around five million visitors, many of them Irish every year.
Denis Leahy from Dublin has been arrested in Thailand after the murder of a young woman.
Leahy, who was never convicted of the murder, was caught by Thai cops on his way to the Cambodian border. He was lifted after he fell asleep in a taxi and the driver recognised his face from a wanted poster. Speaking from his prison cell after being charged with murder at the time, Leahy was reported to have said: “I killed her. I don’t know what came over me but I know what’s coming, they are going to screw me to a wall. “I had a fight with my girlfriend that morning and I wanted to make her jealous.”
He also claimed Bupha had rejected his advances of a bondage sex session, adding: “She freaked out. I ran after her and caught her in the stairwell. “She was freaking out and I dragged her back. She struggled, screaming and kicking. I panicked. I don’t know what happened but I stabbed her in the neck.” But the sicko, who faced the death penalty or a life sentence in the infamous “Bangkok Hilton” had he been found guilty, is believed to have paid €30,000 to secure his release from prison.
Rose added: “I was in a relationship with him for two years. The night before he went to live in Thailand he gave me all his CDs and I had them up until the day he attacked me. “We had stayed with friends up until the day he attacked me. When he was away he’d often even send me a text message. “I think he’s in a psychosis or something.
People say maybe he was looking on Facebook and seeing I was getting on with my life and that he was on the run. “I don’t think I will ever get into his head and I really don’t want to now. “They reckon he blames me for his life going downhill. “He went to Thailand and [was charged with killing] that other girl and came over and tried to do that again.” Rose is now constantly looking over her shoulder since the near death experience.
Pattaya, which has/had a high murder rate, is seeing an increasing number of foreign families paying a visit. The city has been dubbed Thailand's Costa del Crime, and is/was a hideaway for on the run criminals.