Apiwat Tabtimto (a closet case who sat preening outside the court) was the official from the TAT who testified at the trial. He was the one who had told the police he had been offered a sex tour, which gave the police the excuse to raid.

Under oath, he said that prior to 19 March 2004, he had gone "undercover" to the company office wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and asked if he could take a tour package with a foreign friend. He then asked for a business card and said he would come back later. Then, he looked at the company website online and saw the words "gay and lesbian". Based solely on this, he determined that we were doing sex tours, and decided to take the case to the police.

He admitted that he found nothing illegal on the website or any evidence of sex tourism. He also conceded that it was legal for gays and lesbians to visit Thailand, but added that it was OK for them to visit Thailand as long as they "did nothing".

Apiwat was interviewed by the lead reporter from The Australian who later gave us her written account of what transpired. "Everyone knows gays only come to Thailand for sex," said Apiwat. He also told the reporter that he thinks its OK for straight men to come to Thailand for sex, but that "inviting gays and lesbians to come to Thailand is immoral and inappropriate".

There are many within the Tourism Authority of Thailand that understand gay and lesbian niche tourism. The Public Relations Director, Khun Suraporn stated in Bangkok Metro magazine in Oct 2000, "Thailand is a free country. Gay tourists are welcome. They are very cultural people with refined taste. Gays are decent tourists no different from any other. They are seen as a good market." 
 

The Thai police claimed that, at the behest of the Australian Embassy, they had been investigating my ex-partner, Robert Scoble, and had in fact, staked out his apartment to watch the comings and goings of people for weeks prior to the raid.

Then the TAT had -- by coincidence -- received at the same time an anonymous email, followed by the claim of sex tourism by TAT’s Apiwat Tabtimto, which gave the police grounds for a warrant to search the business.

From what I observed, they were completely disinterested in the things they found at the office or in me or our Italian employee, Daniel. The early intention was to charge Scoble on the things they found in his home; they had even told us that he was going to be formally arrested at the police station near his home. As for Daniel and me, at one point they had released us for processing on the minor work permit violation, but within the hour reversed themselves when they realized that it wasn’t illegal for Scoble to have pornography in his home for personal use.

The only way to arrest and hold my ex-partner was to claim that the business was involved in trading those materials. Therefore we were held together and tried together on the same charge.

You can also see that the police weren’t interested in the Spice Trade from the fact that the police never charged the other directors of the company. They didn’t even interview the other expatriate director, though they did speak to the three Thai directors. But none of the other directors were charged. From this, everyone knew that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing and our case was entirely political. The police and TAT stood to lose face with Australia. So they were not about to implicate others, although legally, if they claimed the company was involved in an illegal kind of business, they should have arrested all directors.

Douglas also testified in court that as I had moved over to another company division two years earlier, I was not involved in hiring the Italian. 
 

Daniel was our new employee and on Friday, 19 March, when the police arrived, his work permit was already in progress. He received it the following Monday. Since the immigration police technically had his application in hand, they knew that the company was not trying to employ an illegal alien.

Yet during the drive to the station after the raid, Daniel was told that he was going to be put on a plane back to Italy that evening. At this point no charges or accusations had even been made.

At the station, Daniel was charged with not having a work permit. He signed an acknowledgement of the charge and was taken downstairs for processing. He called shortly thereafter to say that he had been slapped in the face by a senior officer but another officer apologized and said that he would try to have Daniel's charges dropped.

Daniel’s case was later abandoned and never reached the court.

In fact, according to the reporter from The Australian who was with the prosecutor all day on the date of the arraignment, the prosecution was planning not to proceed on the charges against me, but somehow, I was brought back into the case 3 hours before the arriagnment began.

I was working in my office, with my staff at the time of the raid. Officers asked for my work permit which happened to be in the Labour Department awaiting renewal, so I called my lawyer to ask that a copy be faxed over immediately. My mobile phone was taken away from me in mid-conversation, turned off, and I was ordered not to place any further calls.

At the station, I was charged with not presenting my work permit upon request! However, I was also told the charge would be dropped when the permit was delivered. Fortunately, it was delivered by the end of the day.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, 20 March, 20 a table was prepared for a press conference. Three name cards were placed along with a sign card stating "Investigation" in Thai. This sign allowed the police to speculate wildly to the press before any charges were filed, and still protected them from possible repercussions ("We said it was only an 'investigation'.").

Seized materials were placed in front of each name. For Scoble, materials taken from his home including video cassettes and photographs; in front of me, Thai Guys magazines; and in front of Daniel, some company files and folders.

The police had wanted to mix all this material up, but we insisted that they be presented properly, although in the end, it didn't matter as the press was allowed to mix up the materials for their close-up pictures.

Friends and legal counsel were then ordered to leave the room as the press arrived. No legal rights information was given, nor even, at that point in time, had charges been filed.

At approximately 10.30am all three of us were ordered to sit in front of the media while being interrogated from behind by a senior officer from the Immigration Police. Legal council was not allowed to listen or respond to the questions.

The senior officer conducting the press conference was a certain "Doctor Chote", also nicknamed "The Doctor" by the police themselves. One of told me, "He's only coming in to do the press conference, we'll never see him again." The Doctor is also known for writing a column for the newspaper on his exploits.

He stood behind us questioning us at the press conference and making statements to the press regarding sex tours together with a host of other unsavory insinuations without any proof being presented. Speaking in Thai, I denied accusations made against the company.

Two of the Thai press asked why the Thai Guys magazine was being used as evidence, since they were clearly not pornographic as I held them up and showed them page after page.

The Doctor said "They may be legal or they may not be legal, that is not the point. They are Mai Dee! (not good)."

He then took they press aside and started to make up absolutely horrifying stuff about foreigners involved in child slavery, etc.

The police fed the Australian press anonymous photographs which they claimed were evidence of sex crimes. None of this material ever surfaced again.

Later my longtime corporate lawyer said, "Oh, The Doctor! He used to be my student in university. Do you know why they call him that? He was studying medicine in the United States and he was caught on camera shoplifting and deported. Now he hates foreigners."

This was the man deciding what was "Dee" or "Mai Dee" in Thai culture!

And as if all that wasn’t enough, like a true media circus, the three of us were subjected to a second media conference because some of the press were late arriving.

On Friday itself, the bulk of material taken from our offices, including all computers, were returned. It was noted by my staff that the investigators had mixed together materials from the offices and Mr. Scoble's home. Twice our staff requested that the investigators correct these mistakes before receipts were signed for these respective properties by the parties concerned.

On Saturday, after I had been charged and was to be released on bail, the three of us were asked to sign receipts for additional materials being returned. Our translator noted that, once again, materials from Mr. Scoble's home had been mixed together with materials from the offices and the form had to be corrected.

The Prosecution's case was presented over three days, resting after presenting six witnesses: 3 policemen, 1 TAT underling, 1 Thai director of the company, and 1 computer expert.

Not one piece of evidence was presented suggesting that the company or myself were trading obscene material.

The leader of the police investigation testified that nothing illegal or pornographic was found in company offices (directly disputing unfounded allegations that appeared again and again in the Australian press) and that nothing illegal was found on the company's website. He testified that it was not illegal to be gay or lesbian in Thailand.

Copies of the company's campy Christmas cards were presented as evidence by the police. Asking why the policeman found these peculiar, the judge told him that he was looking at the material with straight eyes and that he should try looking at them through the eyes of a gay.

The judge also lectured the police about "the nature of gays." He said that there were gay "kings" and gay "queens" and for women, "toms and dees" and he asked the police if there was any evidence that we were trying to match kings and queens together. The police said no.

The police also stated that the raid on the company was at the request of Apiwat Tabtimto of the TAT.