Thais let jail peril man fly home

From the archive, first published Monday 4th Dec 2006.

Bradford man Kevin Quill was celebrating today after a Thai court gave him permission to return to the UK for urgent medical treatment.

Mr Quill, 44, is due to fly home in the next few days after the Supreme Court judgment.

The former licensee of Bradford's Fighting Cock, Diplomat and Idle Cock pubs has had to lodge a £28,000 surety with the court.

He is on bail in Thailand while prosecutors try to resurrect drug smuggling charges against him.

Mr Quill, who is unable to speak, is coming home to have an artificial voice box fitted. Thai surgeons removed his larynx during lifesaving throat cancer surgery in August.

He has completed his radiation treatment and now fears infection from an open wound in his throat.

Hands-free voice box systems are not available in Thailand but can be obtained in Britain from the National Health Service.

"I am looking at flights this week," Mr Quill said in an e-mail to the Telegraph & Argus when he heard the news.

He is visiting his mother in Halifax before staying with friends in Bradford.

Mr Quill is hoping to have his voice box fitted in North Yorkshire on December 11.

"It is all good news at the minute. I hope it lasts. The courts were very fair and understanding," he said in his e-mail.

He is delighted his business partner, Weerasak Sibsiri, has obtained a six-month visa to accompany him.

Mr Sibsiri has helped to nurse and care for him since he was diagnosed with throat cancer early this year.

Mr Quill, who lives in the resort of Pattaya, was made to stay in Thailand while the appeal against his acquittal for drug smuggling was considered by the Thai Supreme Court.

He supported his application to return to the UK with letters and applications from lawyers, the British Embassy and the Thai hospital where he was being treated. Mr Quill said he had no intention of leaving Thailand for good.

"That is not going to happen. I have not stayed around for six years and two months, to be cleared in the Appeal Court by all three judges, to think about quitting or running away now," he said.

"If I was guilty, I would have been out of here a long time ago. I am here now until this matter is cleared and resolved."

Mr Quill spent seven months in a Thai jail when he was sentenced to six years for smuggling amphetamine. He could still be returned to prison if a future court ruling goes against him.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "It has been confirmed by the Thai authorities that Mr Quill has been granted permission to return to the UK for medical treatment."

e-mail: jenny.loweth@bradford.newsquest.co.uk