British Man Stabbed, Abandoned, and Trapped in the Philippines
A Brit’s life unravels after being stabbed by his girlfriend, infected, and subjected to a botched exorcism as he begs the UK for help.
A British man stranded in the Philippines claims he is waiting to die after his life took a horrific turn, leaving him with a rotten leg, no visa, and no way home. Conan White, 60, has been left in unimaginable agony. His foot mangled beyond belief after a botched medical procedure, a failed witch doctor’s exorcism, and years of neglect.
His harrowing descent into the nightmare began when he uprooted his life to move to the Southeast Asian country in 2018 for love only to be stabbed by his girlfriend and abandoned in the slums. Now penniless, immobile, and starving, Conan says he is trapped in a jungle, held like a prisoner by locals who control the only key to the gate. With his funds nearly depleted and his health rapidly deteriorating, he fears he is only days away from death.
The Relationship That Ended in Violence
The expatriate moved to the Philippines in 2018 after meeting a woman on a Christian dating app. Excited to begin his new life, he gave up his job as a HR officer to start what he thought would be a fresh start in the paradise Southeast Asian country. But his world quickly came crashing down when he realized he had made a dangerous mistake falling for a woman he claims was involved in a dubious business and had abandoned her child.
After spending around 5 years with his then girlfriend and even taking in her 9 year old son from her sister, she would go on to stab him in May 2022. He said the relationship was flawed, and the vicious attack is what led him to his first encounter with the Philippine police.
The Brit recalled laying on a bed in their shared home after they had broken up before she launched the unprovoked assault on him. “I was on the bed and the next thing I knew she was attacking me, fighting me, slapping me and then she stabbed me in the foot. She stabbed me twice. I have no idea with what,” he said. He retreated in a panic, hobbling down the stairs and leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Conan rushed to the police only to be told they would not investigate unless he paid a bribe. Alone and injured, he was forced to patch himself up and flee to the slums of Cebu.
Living in the Slums
Following the bloody assault, Conan was forced to live in a rat infested squalor where he came face to face with disease ridden vermin the size of cats and shared a communal bathroom with cobras. His bed was merely two wooden pallets topped with a single dirty duvet and a torn pillow. The toilet was shared by a dozen other poverty stricken Filipinos and was surrounded by large, grimy waste bins. His 140 peso per night accommodations were little more than a filthy, crumbling shack. There, Conan was bitten by a rat and contracted sepsis.
But although it seemed as if the Brit had hit rock bottom, his suffering was far from over.
Botched Surgery After a Catastrophic Fall
In the summer of 2023, Conan took a catastrophic fall down a freeway just after having recovered from COVID 19, meaning his immune system was at its weakest. It was during this incident that Conan’s foot was left shattered, forcing him to seek treatment at a private clinic where he claims a doctor deliberately butchered his limb to extort even more money from him.
“Locals confirmed to me that I shouldn’t have gone there and that it was a charlatan that will hack your foot apart,” he said. Days later, a water burst in his home sent him tumbling down the stairs again, worsening his injuries. His foot became twisted, mangled, and oozing with infection. The man soon began experiencing a fever so severe he had to take antibiotics and use medications that were not working.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but I was probably dying at this point. I was in a complete state. I could barely speak. I could barely move. I couldn’t hold my food down.”
Witch Doctor and Exorcism
Conan’s then girlfriend, who was located in Malaysia, had grown increasingly concerned for his well being. Her brothers took an 8 hour ferry from Mindanao to Cebu to bring him back so he could be seen at the city hospital. Not able to return home and care for himself, the desperate and sick man went to stay with his girlfriend’s mother, where in a horrid turn of events, he was left bedridden for a year due to her neglect.
“It was a horrible time. It’s very traumatizing,” Conan said. “My leg was continually infected. It was on the verge of gangrene, and I realized I needed to go into hospital, but the mother kept telling me that if I went to hospital, they would chop my leg off.” She insisted to Conan that they would not offer any treatment and would jump straight into amputation, which left him fearing for his life.
Conan claims the mother gave him another choice. “If you stay here, I’ll look after you. Give me your money.” Desperate for aid, Conan followed her demands and was from then on taken care of by his girlfriend’s mother. But his foot would never fully recover. The mother took Conan off his diabetic medicine and antibiotics, instead using her herbal remedies to try and fix his severe ailments. She had invited priests to the house to bless his foot in candle lit vigils, and at one point had even invited a female witch doctor to the property who massaged his back before spitting continuously to try and get rid of the evil spirits.
Conan put up with the attempts to perform magic and ritual medicine because he was so terrified of stepping foot into a hospital. “I was becoming so delirious. It was horrible,” Conan said. “The mother didn’t speak English. No one around me spoke English. I was just left in a back room and I was by myself all the time.”
Trapped in the Jungle
In January of this year, Conan was moved into a tiny crumbling hut deep into the isolated jungles. The small shed like outhouse is located within a community that has no more than 100 people and 20 buildings. To this day, he is mostly unable to walk and feels like a prisoner with no financial resources to get him back home.
“People here don’t speak English and I don’t speak Filipino. So, I’ve been isolated here for over a year,” he said. Conan eats just one meal a day, usually consisting of a thin, watery stew of tuna and crackers, which costs him just 42p. He has no other options, with the little money he has managed to preserve rapidly drying up.
“The people who run this place have the key to the gate to get in and won’t give it to me and they won’t tell me why.” According to Conan, he is now a prisoner in the jungle, left with nothing but his thoughts as company. He believes the locals are keeping him locked in for his money. They claim he is too sick to leave.
To escape the hidden shack, Conan must cross a rickety bamboo bridge that crosses over a river filled with snakes and sharp rubble. It is even feared by locals for being so dangerously unstable.
A week ago, Conan reached breaking point and contacted the British embassy in a last ditch attempt to save himself, but to no avail. He claims they have been useless. “They basically sent me lots of links and loads of documents, but they don’t do any good. They’re bizarre.”
British Couple Face Charges After a Thailand Assault
Des and Mary Burns packed up their lives in Middlesbrough to relocate to the tropical paradise in 2020 and used their savings to build a villa on the Thai Riviera. But they soon found themselves at the center of a dispute over land access.
In December 2023, the pair heard a commotion in the garden where they found a couple both in their 40s, super fit and trained in Thai boxing ripping up their plants. The Burns confronted them and ordered them to leave when the man (believed to be from the UK) and his Thai partner launched a frenzied attack on them.
Mr. Burns says he was knocked out cold and his assailant continued to rain blows down on him while he was on the floor. He was struck a total of 22 times. The Thai woman turned her attention to Mrs. Burns and began punching and kicking her until she fell into a flower bed where she appears to have been stomped on. The Burns suffered horrific injuries, and the attack has left Mrs. Burns with reduced heart function.
The couple say their attackers were arrested in May last year and first denied the charges before reportedly changing their plea to guilty in August. The Burns said the couple were ordered to pay compensation and thought the issue had been resolved.
Countercharges Turn the Case Around
But to the couple’s horror, 15 police officers suddenly stormed their home and arrested them on countercharges of causing superficial injuries and mental anguish. Retired chemical engineer Mr. Burns (77) and retired nurse Mrs. Burns (69) now face court. They have been warned that the likely outcome is that they will be sent to prison.
The pair has spent every penny trying to clear their names and has even sold their villa in the resort city of Hua Hin. Mrs. Burns said, “All we want is to come home, but we are trapped here. We are prisoners and no one seems to be able to help us. It’s like a living hell because it is clear to anyone we are the victims in this and somehow we are going to be brought in front of a court.”
It’s one of these things that can happen in Thailand. The police can arrest one set of people and then it suddenly goes the other way. I don’t want to spell it out here because I live in Thailand, but you can read between the lines and guess why they maybe shift their attentions to somebody else. It does happen. Very, very unlucky.
They came out here to Thailand to settle down in the beautiful city of Hua Hin, which I know well, and they’ve had to sell their house. At the time of reading this, they’ll have just gone to court, so maybe you can look it up on Google and find out what’s happened. I haven’t actually followed it up.
A Nod and Smile Lead to Unwanted Curry
In January 2025, my friend Thomas accompanied me on a month long trip to Thailand. He came with me once before in 2022. I’m retired and I come to Thailand each year, usually in January. This January was my 10th trip there. When traveling with Thomas, it is always an adventure. Interesting things seem to happen to him. Some are his fault as he is somewhat of a newbie to Thailand, and some happen even when he is doing things properly.
Prior to and during our trip in 2022, I was advising him about things to be careful of. One thing I emphasized was to never agree to the purchase of goods or services unless he completely understood what he was paying for and what the price was. I specifically told him not to nod and smile when he did not understand.
One evening in Chiang Mai, we met at a restaurant in the northeast quadrant of the old city. Thomas did not want to eat as he had eaten earlier, but I had not. I ordered a mild curry and a beer. The waiter said something to Thomas in Thai which neither of us understood. Thomas grinned at the waiter and slightly nodded his head politely.
When my curry came, there were two bowls mine and one for Thomas. Thomas told the waiter he did not order any food. The waiter insisted that he take the curry, and the manager came and also insisted. Thomas was not happy but did not make a scene. In most Thai restaurants, if there is a mistake on an order, the wait staff has the cost deducted from their salary. These poor folk work so hard for little pay, so it is devastating to them when there is a deduction.
I explained again to Thomas that his smile and his nod of his head when he did not understand is what caused the situation. On the recent trip in January, another interesting situation happened this one had a much more positive ending, even though it started out badly.
The Hotel Adventure at 2:00 a.m.
We arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport from Texas a little before midnight on the 8th of January. By the time we cleared immigration, collected our luggage, and walked through customs, it was about 1:00 a.m. of the 9th of January. As the rail link train stops at midnight, a taxi was our best choice to go to our hotel just off Sukhumvit Soi 15.
We got our taxi ticket and went to stall number 30, and our driver loaded our suitcase into the taxi. Although the drivers from the airport have gotten much better over the years at using the meter, I guess he took me for a newbie. He said the fare to our hotel would be 1,300 baht. I told him no use the meter. He said the meter was broken. I told him to let us out and opened my door to get out. He then said, “Okay, okay, meter.”
The meter showed 350 baht when we arrived, to which he added the 50 baht airport fee for a total of 400 baht. I did add a small tip, but it was less than I would have given if he had been honest from the start.
That was only the beginning of our early morning adventure. At the hotel, I was given my key in less than 3 minutes. Thomas handed the clerk his passport and an Agoda printout. The clerk looked puzzled. “We don’t have your reservation.”
A Cancelled Reservation in Bangkok
Thomas reminded him that he had the Agoda confirmation. The clerk went to the back office and came out with a paper showing that the reservation had been cancelled about 7:00 p.m. Now it was close to 2:00 a.m. Thomas explained that we were on a plane at 7:00 p.m. and that he did not cancel the reservation. I suspect that because the hotel was fully booked, someone walked in needing a room at 7:00, and the hotel could charge him more than what Thomas was paying. So, the hotel cancelled his reservation.
We checked nearby hotels. The first two were full. The third had a room normally about 1,200 baht, but they wanted 5,000 baht for one night. The fourth also wanted an outrageous price.
I told Thomas, “Look, for one night, you can stay in my room with me, and we will sort this out tomorrow morning.”
When we got back to my hotel, there had been a shift change, and a girl was working the front desk. She said they were fully booked but that she had a friend that worked at a hotel about two blocks away. She gave her friend a call. She told Thomas that the security guard would walk him to the friend’s hotel.
An Unexpected Happy Ending
About 10:00 a.m., Thomas messaged me to meet him. He told me what transpired. When Thomas arrived at the little hotel, the girl (the friend of the girl at my hotel) told him that the only room they had left was the most expensive room in the hotel. But at 11:00 a.m., there would be an inexpensive room available for 4 days that he could have.
She said that if he would not mess up the expensive room, he could go there and shower using only one towel and could sleep on top of the bedspread so they would not have to change the bed linens. She said if he would do this and not mess the room up, he could stay there until 11:00 for no charge.
But it gets better. Thomas accepted her offer and told the girl that she should accompany him to the room to be sure he didn’t mess it up. She did. They showered together and messed up the bed together but there was still no charge.
Often, if you just go with the flow, a bad situation can turn into a good one.
A 4:00 a.m. Door Banging Nightmare in Phuket
I was in Phuket 2 years ago with a business friend. It was only a four night trip arranged for us. I was trying to make a good impression, so I was keeping my nighttime activities to myself. We were dining in nice places and not really getting involved with the girls or visiting the bars.
Anyway, through a dating app, I had arranged for a ladyboy to visit me late at night. My friend and I had actually had a great night out and had bonded better than ever. He was staying about six doors away from me, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to have a late night visitor. That is what I thought.
The ladyboy in question arrived late. I was almost asleep after drinking a few bottles of wine and some whiskey with my colleague. When she arrived, I was groggy and sleepy. We did the business, and I was rather infatuated with her. So, I flippantly said, “Come back anytime you want.” She left, and that was that.
The next night was our final night out before we returned home. It was a good night, and we had visited many bars enjoying the scene. We said goodnight and went to bed. However, around 4:00 in the morning, there was a knock on my door. I sat up and stared at the door, unsure of who it was. Another knock, then the sound of the ladyboy from the previous night. She was saying, “I come back. I come back.”
I froze because I did not want her to come in at all. The opposite happened. She started banging on the door like a maniac and screaming for me to let her in. Then she began throwing herself against the door, shouting, swearing louder and louder. I was frozen to the bed, not sure what to do. I quietly called the operator and whispered that there was someone trying to get into my room by mistake.
After one final charge at my door and a scream, it suddenly went quiet. I will never know if my colleague knew what had happened because neither of us mentioned it, but he was close enough to hear and see, as were many other people. I did not really make eye contact at breakfast with the other guests.
A Chinese Massage Worker’s Debt and Desperation
This story is not about Thailand or even a Thai girl, but a girl in similar circumstances.
For the sake of this story, we’ll call her Ping. She is a lovely 40 year old woman from somewhere in rural China. I met her working in a massage shop here in the US. She doesn’t speak a word of English. We have tried to communicate through Google Translate, which is problematic at best.
Through several conversations, I have been able to determine that she is divorced, has a grown child, and her ex husband left her with $200,000 US in debt. She has come to the US to work to pay off this debt. Her circumstances are dire. She even lives in the massage shop. She has no friends or family in this country. She has a minimal wardrobe and will not spend any money for anything other than basic necessities. Everything she makes goes towards the debt. She works 7 days a week, 13 hours a day in that shop.
Peter, if it had not been for stories I heard on your site, I might not have believed nor understood her situation. I hope that I have learned enough for my story not to be another crash and burn. I also hope that I don’t have white knight syndrome because I have truly fallen for this Asian girl.
A Belarusian Gold Digger and the Lesson She Taught
In my mid 40s, American but born and raised in South America. I started looking in Eastern Europe in 2021. Amazed by the number of matches with beautiful women, I finally struck gold with Inger. She was from a smaller town (big cities can be tough), an English teacher for toddlers. Polite, slim, responsive, in her late 30s with an amazing body and a clean Instagram. A dream. The only downside was that she was divorced with two kids. But at my age, it is very hard to find a woman otherwise.
After months of daily affectionate conversations, I went to meet her in Minsk. I booked a good hotel room in the city center. She showed me around, taught me a little Russian, but at night no aerobics. She said she wasn’t ready. We had just met. At the time, I saw that as virtuous and kept the thing going.
Months later, here I go again. Very slow start. Poor and weak aerobics. Was it a cultural difference? What was going on? She said I had to be patient and things would slowly develop. She never asked for money but always kept some of my rubles at the end of every trip.
The Signs of a Gold-Digging Relationship
By the third visit, I was meeting her parents high expectations. Finally, some bedroom action, but still not enthusiastic or at the expected daily amount. However, this time I was determined to find out the truth. She asked for a phone, and I bought one with special software. Days passed, and I could read all her conversations.
She had a younger guy who she exploited for renovations at her place. Poor kid was in love with her but had no money, so he never stood a chance. I found out he visited her every couple of months when she sent her kids to stay with their father. I said nothing to her about what I had discovered. A couple of weeks later, back home in the US, I broke up with her by text.
In the end, the lesson for me is that there is no such thing as a traditional wife anymore outside of maybe very specific small circles.
