Rory McColl, from Edinburgh, was only hours into his trip to Thailand when he accidentally picked up a woman’s phone in a bar – now his family says he is unable to come home and faces jail
A dad is facing jail in a Thai hellhole prison after he accidentally picked up a woman’s phone in a bar, his family said.
Rory McColl, from Edinburgh, told how he confused the woman’s phone with his own and picked it up just hours after arriving for a holiday in Bangkok on March 9.
The 37-year-old owned up to the mistake but was accused of theft and spent the first two nights of his trip in a filthy cell, the Daily Record reports.
After forking out £1,000 in bail money to be released from jail, cops seized Rory’s passport. He has now been stranded in the south-east Asian country for almost a month as he waits for a court date.
His sister Joanna McLaughlin fears her brother will be sentenced to jail time.
She said: “Rory was arrested on the first night of his holiday due to a misunderstanding. He normally keeps his phone in his pocket and had forgotten that he had a travel waist bag where he was keeping his valuables.
“At some point, he went to get his phone, couldn’t find it in his pocket and saw the same phone as his sitting on the bar. He picked it up thinking it was his and put it in his pocket.
“The girl whose phone it actually was saw him taking it and involved the police, thinking he had stolen it. By the time Rory realised his mistake, the police were arresting him and taking all his belongings.”
Rory claims he was subjected to “horrendous conditions” in a Thai jail cell for two nights. Joanna said after his release, he went to the Embassy but was advised that they can’t get involved in criminal cases.
Rory, who works at Buck’s Bar in Edinburgh, is now awaiting his fate in a cheap hotel in Pattaya. Grim Thai prisons include Klong Prem Central, which has a brutal reputation, while another possibility is high-security and the overcrowded Bang Kwang Central.
Loved ones have set up a GoFundMe appeal to cover living costs and legal fees.
Joanna said: “A lawyer will be very expensive. He has already had to pay £1,000 bail money and various payments to the police.
“His travel insurance won’t cover the costs of missing his flight home and he hadn’t budgeted to pay for hotels for all this time.
“As a family, we are desperate to get Rory home. He has to get back for his son and his work. We are also extremely concerned that the police are still talking about jail sentences when he is innocent of the crime of theft.”
