Dokset was sentenced to 15 years for unintentionally killing his partner Rungnapa “June” Ratchasombut, in 2009, at his home in Kata.
He also was sentenced to a year in jail for attempting to hide June’s body.
Because he pleaded guilty to both of these accusations, the sentences were halved, for a total of eight years.
He denied, however, illegal possession of a gun, arguing that a pistol found in his house belonged to June, not him. The judge disagreed and sentenced him to another year for that offence – making a total of nine years.
In addition to the jail time, the court ordered Dokset to pay June’s two children B500,000 compensation each, with a further B400,000 each for her mother and father, the numbers having been reached after lengthy negotiations with the family.
The family’s lawyer told The Phuket News this afternoon after the sentence that the family were happy with the result.
“They are content with the result, that he was sentenced to nine years,” he said. “Part of the reason is that Dokset used to be kind to June’s family before.”
He noted, “The compensation will be paid from the proceeds once the house in Kata is sold. So far that has not happened.”
Dokset’s lawyer, asked whether any appeal against verdict or sentence was being considered, told The Phuket News that nothing has been decided yet.
Dokset was originally charged with murder but he always denied murdering June, maintaining that her death was accidental, coming in the middle of furious row that became physical.
After her death he bundled her into a wheelie bin which he taped shut and stowed in one of the eight bedrooms in the house.
It was almost three years before police, acting on information received, were able to get a search warrant and discovered the bin and its gruesome decayed contents. June’s remains could be identified only by DNA matching.
Dokset gave his version of the events to The Phuket News in an exclusive interview on March 1, 2012, shortly after his arrest.
Additional reporting by Tanyaluk Sakoot.