British man who murdered his girlfriend in Thailand picked up in the Philippines

Michael Taylor, better known in Phuket at Mick the Pom and on the run for murder has been arrested in the Philippines.

50 year old Taylor has been a murder fugitive since 2004 after stabbing his girlfriend Jantra Weangta, 27 in Phuket.

After being arrested in 2004 police said they had statement from eight people confirming their belief that Taylor had murdered his girlfriend in their shared home in Chalong. The court issued an arrest warrant but Taylor denied the charges, saying that at the time of his girlfriends death he was drinking in the Moonlight Bar in Karon and later had sex with a 21 year old katoey named Fonnoi Khonsau on the beach. He maintains he found Jantra dead on the bed in his return to their home, she had died from a single stab wound to the heart.

At the time of the murder police retrieved a pair of bloodstained trousers and a large Bowie knife from the off shore oil workers home.

Despite the serious charge against him Taylor was granted bail after he posted a land title and 400,000 baht as security. He went on the run mid way through his trial in 2006 and was spotted in the Philippines in November, it is also though he was working in the off shore oil industry in the area. Rumors that started to circulate that the man had been picked up by police were confirmed when a Foreign Office spokesman said “we can confirm the arrest of a British national in the Philippines on March 6^th, and we are providing consular assistance.”

The case has provoked uproar in Thailand, with questions being asked of both the British and Thai authorities for seemingly allowing Mr. Taylor to slip through their nets.

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