Andrew Chant

Tracking Down Gary Glitter

Andrew Chant and reporter Andrew Drummond traced fallen glam-rock icon Gary Glitter to a luxury villa in Vung Tao, Vietnam. His arrest at Ho Chi Minh airport as he tried to leave the country was a direct result of these pictures. They were used on the front page of the UK newspaper The News Of The World for 3 weeks running.

Wanted Suckers! It’s the Boiler Room Calling

Two separate boiler rooms here. In the first set, the Brinton Group, Andrew Chant received an exclusive tip that a joint FBI/Thai team would raid a boiler room. I followed them upstairs and photographed the bust. The pictures were used widely in the UK press as well as Time Magazine Asia. The second set was an expose carried out with reporter colleague Andrew Drummond. While Andrew was on the end of a death threat from the boiler room managers, I was shooting from a bridge, praying they wouldn’t spot me. It was used in the Sunday Mirror.

Bird Flu - Human to Human

11-yr-old Sakuntala Thongchan was living with her aunt in remote Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand when she contracted flu. Her mother rushed from Bangkok to be with her as she died. Doctors confirmed the mother caught the disease from her daughter-the only confirmed case in the world. She died 3 weeks later. The aunt also caught it but recovered. These pictures were done for a bird flu feature used in the Mail on Sunday.

Million Dollar Jail Baby

Just like the film, 26-year-old Wannee Chaisena hoped that boxing could change her life. She had served 7 years of a 10 year jail sentence for drug dealing. Prison authorities had promised her immediate release if she managed to win the vacant WBC womens straw weight  title against a Japanese opponent. Click the link to see what happened.

Murder on the River Kwai

In September 2004 Thai police Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh gunned down and murdered Briton Adam Lloyd, 24, then drove a Volvo over his girlfriend Vanessa Arscott, 23,before assasinating her at point blank range. Andrew Chant and reporter colleague Andrew Drummond assisted and documented the families fight for justice. For words and background click here.

Bangkok Super Club

The London based Ministry of Sound nightclub chose Bangkok for their first overseas venue. They created a monster club, capable of holding 3,000 people, complete with state of the art speakers, lazers etc, etc. Unfortunately and expensively for them, the opening coincided with a ‘Social Order Crackdown’. Clubs were burdened with regular police raids where they urine tested partygoers and closing times were cut to midnight. It was forced to close after a year.