WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES Des and Mary Byrne, 77 and 69 respectively, moved to Thailand hoping to enjoy their retirement – but a planning dispute with neighbours soon turned it into a “nightmare”
An elderly expat couple were savagely battered by their neighbours over a planning dispute in Thailand as one of their attackers uttered five chilling words.
Des and Mary Byrne were in the centre of a land access dispute with their neighbours over their villa in the ‘Thai Riveria’ when they were attacked in their garden. The couple, from Middlesborough, moved to Thailand in 2020, using their savings to buy the home. In December 2023, the pair heard a commotion in their garden and upon investigating, found a couple in their 40s ripping up plants.
The Byrnes confronted the couple, who were trained in Thai boxing, launched a vicious attack on the pensioners, leaving Mary, a retired NHS palliative care nurse, needing medical care. After Mary was knocked unconscious, one of the attackers told her partner: “You’re alright, she’s still breathing.”
Des and Mary Byrne have had their passports seized and have been forbidden from leaving Thailand while “corrupt” officials pursue their case in what they’ve described as a “horror beyond their worst nightmare”. And to make matters worse, Mary, 69, who once worked in end-of-life care for the NHS, is unable to leave the Southeast Asian country for treatment after being brutally pummelled by neighbours over a planning dispute.
As a result of the vicious assault, she has been left with a broken nose, an internal bleed on the brain, and an irregular heartbeat. Her husband Des, 77, was beaten to the floor, where he was hit 22 times across the head, leaving him unconscious and requiring extensive treatment in hospital.
The local couple were found guilty of assault and told to pay compensation, but the charge was then overturned and the couple charged with causing their neighbours, who are trained in Muay Thai, “superficial injuries and mental anguish”. Des and Mary say that their failure to pay a bribe left them with a pending court date. They have been told they now face jail time.
Crying as she relayed her story, Mary said: “We just want to come home. It’s like something out of a bad movie. We are already trapped like prisoners despite not being locked up. Our health has deteriorated and we’ve spent our life savings on this horrible ordeal.”
“Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles because the people are known for their hospitality and friendliness,” Mary told The Sun. “But our idyllic retirement in paradise has landed us in a living hell.”
Back in 2021, the Byrnes spent £200,000 on a retirement villa in Hua Hin, which is known as the “Thai Riviera”, and just a couple of hours outside of Bangkok. However, they returned from a trip to find builders working on their home, with the locals now saying they owned the access road.
The couple halted development temporarily after hiring a local lawyer, but tensions soon rose until December 2023 when it came to a brutal climax. The locals came to their garden and started pulling up plants and screaming abuse at them in Thai. As they approached them, the pensioners were viciously attacked.
When they regained consciousness, there were no words of support or concern from the other locals, who simply told them to “go home”. They said they had no better luck with the police, who wouldn’t file their report. Eventually, they managed to charge the neighbours, but in July they were summoned to court and told they would be prosecuted instead.