Handler faces trial for Scot’s elephant death

AN elephant handler in Thailand has been charged over the killing of a Scottish tourist by the animal.

Gareth CroweIG

Gareth Crowe was thrown from a trekking elephant and fatally gored in Thailand last week

Gareth Crowe had been riding the elephant alongside stepdaughter Eilidh Hughes with a local guide on the tropical island of Koh Samui and was thrown off and fatally gored.

Police have said initial investigations suggest the trainer’s recklessness contributed to the death. They say the mahout, Saw Win Tun, neglected his duty by climbing down from the elephant’s neck to take photos of the tourists and lost control of the animal.

Bo Put Provincial Police Station director Colonel Thewet Pluemsut has said pictures from 36-year-old Mr Crowe’s camera show the moment the handler, who is Burmese, climbed off the elephant to take photos, and that this shows “inattentiveness”.

The 37-year-old mahout faced charges that his actions resulted in death and injuries when he appeared in Koh Samui Provincial Court yesterday. Mr Crowe, from Linwood, Renfrewshire, was on holiday with his partner, Catherine Hughes, 42, mother to 16-year-old Eilidh, and Eilidh’s brother, Mark, who had decided not to go on the trek. Ms Hughes is from  Islay but had moved to Tayvallich, Argyll.

Eilidh escaped with minor injuries and was treated in a local hospital.

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