European Court of Human Rights Accepts Case Of Thai Bride & Scots KiltMaker
Andrew Drummond
Dec 26, 2011
European Court accepts plea of Thai wife married to Scots kilt maker
Now she claims HE had ‘Turkish delights’
From ANDREW DRUMMOND, Bangkok
December 25 2011
A Thai wife, who was blocked from returning to Scotland after her kilt-maker husband told British Border Agency officers that she had deserted him and was having an affair, has successfully had her case accepted by the European Court of Human Rights.
Mrs. Kanokrat Booth outside the Council of Europe in Strasbourg
She took the case to Europe after Britain continued to refuse her entry despite a ruling by an Upper Immigration Tribunal that Border Agency officers had acted unlawfully.
And Kanokrat Sinsamuth Booth, 42, said today in Bangkok that if she wins she will fiercely contest a divorce suit her husband 68-yr-old Denis Booth, from Galashiels, has filed with Selkirk Sherriff Court.
She denies ever being unfaithful and claims she may now reveal the ‘Turkish delights’ her husband had whole on sailing holidays in the Mediterranean, if it becomes relevant.
‘It was not I who was the unfaithful one’.
The couple were at pains to celebrate their love. This picture was taken at their Buddhist wedding in Thailand
Mrs. Booth, an author and journalist, from Pathum Thani, 20 miles north west of Bangkok, was turned away by British Border Agency Officers at Glasgow airport in 2010 after an extended holiday with her two children from a previous marriage in Thailand.
Her British residence permit was cancelled. She was locked up at a police station outside the airport and then deported the following day.
But on May 23rd this year Judge Gill confirmed an Immigration Tribunal Appeal ruling that the British Border Agency had exceeded its powers in cancelling her residence permit , locking her up and deporting her.
Their Buddhist wedding was followed by a ‘high society’ wedding in a Bangkok hotel
‘There is no evidence that the marriage had terminated…Accordingly the respondent’s decision was contrary to Regulation (14)2 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006,’ said the judge at the Upper Tribunal.
Mrs. Booth said she had spent over 10 million Thai baht in travel, visas fees, accommodation, in fighting the British government, who despite the Judge’s ruling refused to instate her residence permit so she can fly to Scotland to contest her divorce.
Because the UK had refused her entry some other European countries, such as Holland had followed suit, she said.
‘I want a divorce, of course now. My life has been taken from me. As a married woman in Thailand I am not allowed to do anything like run a business, own a house, or even get a bank loan without my husband’s permission. Thai women should be made aware of this and they may not be able to get into Britain to file for divorce if things go wrong.
‘But my husband is seeking a divorce on the grounds of my alleged desertion. That is false. He also claimed untruthfully that I had been having an affair. In fact, because he was careless with his emails, I can show it was he who was the unfaithful one. He had affairs; there was more than one, in Turkey, where he also used to spend long sailing holidays when I went home to see my children. But I never raised them with him.’
Exchanging rings in Thailand
Kanokrat Booth has written a book about her marriage to Denis Booth as a warning to Thai women planning to marry a foreigner. It’s called: ‘My wife came from the wrong button’.
The couple had met through an internet dating agency. Whenever they had disagreements, said Kanokrat, Mr. Booth would complain that he clicked the wrong button on the internet.’
Sealing the deal again in Galashiels
The book ‘Miracle of Love – My husband comes from the wrong button!’ was a best seller in Thailand. Mrs. Booth went on to write a book which was critical of the dysfunctional Thai political system.
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