Breaking: Thaivisa exclusive: Aussie assaulted in school by Thai says “I am completely innocent.”

The Australian pensioner knocked to the ground in a school car park after a road rage incident in Pattaya has told Thaivisa he is innocent. (read the story here)

And he claims he thought the other man was trying to kill him in the street so he went to get “a garden tool”. (read the story here).

We managed to track down 72 year old Gerard Collins and his Thai wife Pattama who were at Pattaya Police station trying to sort out the situation at 1pm today.

Asked if he was in anyway at fault Mr Collins was adamant:

“Absolutely not,” he said. “The other guy started it”.

Mr Collins said that there had been an incident on his way to Aksorn Suksa school in Pattaya to pick up his nine year old daughter.

“I was just on my way to school,” he said. “Three or four times there was a pushing match on the road”.

He said he felt threatened by the other man – now known to be 28 year old Sumet Rungratanaphan, a gold shop owner in South Pattaya.

“I went to get a garden tool, a chopper, from the back of my car to protect myself.

“I told him to stop but he kept on coming for me,” Mr Collins said over the phone from the police station.

“I got the chopper to make him stop and I bashed his car up a bit, in the back too.

“I thought he was going to kill me”

After that Mr Collins claimed that when he got back in his car the other man “jumped in front of my car and jumped on the bonnet”.

His car suffered a broken windscreen.

Some posters believed that the Australian had tried to run down the Thai after video evidence emerged probably from a dash cam.

Regarding the incident at the school when Sumet smacked him in the face in full view of a cop, teachers and students he said:

“I can’t remember exactly what happened. The police were talking to me and the next thing I knew I had been bashed and I was on the ground”.

The video of the attack was taken by a Daily News reporter at the scene and left little room for argument. Police did not move to immediately arrest Sumet.

The Australian said that he had lived in Thailand for 15 years and had never had any trouble with anyone.

He has been married to his wife Pattama for 13 or 14 years, he said.

Following the hurried interview with Thaivisa he was once again called back into the police interview room where discussions were taking place.

His wife told Thaivisa moments earlier that she expected that her husband would not be fined over the incident.

Thai Visa

Image credit: Daily News

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