A Canadian woman facing ten years in prison in Thailand has apologised for defacing an 800-year-old wall, saying she and her British accomplice were “ridiculously drunk” at the time of the offence.
Brittney Schneider, 23, and British backpacker Lee Furlong, also 23, were arrested for vandalism by Thai police last Friday in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
Schneider says that she and some other tourists, including Furlong, were on their way back to their hostel after a night out in the city when they found a can of spray paint in the street near the Tha Pae Gate, the entrance to Chiang Mai’s medieval old town.
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Furlong, from Liverpool, daubed “Scousse Lee” - intended to read “Scouser Lee” - on the 13th-century brickwork in large, black letters. He told the Daily Express he had been drinking alcohol all day and was “blind drunk” at the time.
Schneider intended to add her own name to the wall, but said she “came to as I finished writing the B and I stopped because I knew it was bad”, adding that they were “ridiculously drunk”, according to an email sent to The Canadian Press.
Police examined CCTV footage and arrived at the hostel the next day to arrest Furlong and Schneider on charges of vandalising an ancient site, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a one million baht (£23,500) fine.
The pair were first marched down to the scene of the crime to see their handiwork, which has since been painstakingly scrubbed away, before being taken to jail.
The Canadian said she remained behind bars until Monday, when her family paid her 149 million baht (£3,500) bail.
“We slept on the floor. The toilets were awful and the food was awful,” Schneider told state broadcaster CBC, saying she was “terrified” at the thought of returning to prison.
Furlong’s mother, Michelle, told The Daily Telegraph that she had been forced to borrow money in order to pay her son’s bail and that she was “devastated” by his disrespectful behaviour.
“That’s not how he was brought up but he’s done a stupid thing,” she said, adding: “If I could go over to Thailand and clean it off myself then I would.”
Furlong and Schneider must remain in Thailand until they can be tried.
