From the outside it looked like a 50/50 chance: either he would be extradited to Thailand or he would be set free.
Earlier this week, however, the British High Court decided that sending Aldhouse back to Thailand to be tried on charges of fatally stabbing US Marine Dashawn Longfellow in Phuket in 2010 was the right course of action, and dismissed his appeal against extradition.
Significantly, the Thai government promised that Aldhouse, if sent back, and if found guilty, would not face the death penalty, which can still be applied in Thailand for premeditated murder – a crucial promise in persuading the British to extradite him.
This was in stark contrast to the case of Belgian murder suspect Sam van Treeck, wanted for the frenzied stabbing of his ex-girlfriend Chompoonut ‘Jeab’ Kobram in Pattaya in 2004. He escaped (through Cambodia, it is believed) and made it back home to Belgium.
The Belgian authorities refused to consider extraditing him because Thailand still has the death penalty. He was released and now lives a free man in his home country.
But Thailand has learned from this – as the Aldhouse extradition case attests. It has also been keeping up its own end of the bargain. In July Marc de Schutter, a Belgian wanted for the suspected murder of ex-girlfriend and brothel-owning partner Vera Van Laer was extradited to Belgium.
The decision by the British High Court in Aldhouse's case sends a strong warning to the UK's less well behaved citizens – if you do the crime in Thailand, you may run away, but it probably won't do you any good. All you will do is delay the inevitable.