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A dad was thrown into a 'disgusting' Thai jail cell after a gang of thugs allegedly smashed his face in with nail-embedded sticks.
Luke Thornton, 38, from Weston-super-Mare, claims he was kicked and punched in the face, put in an “MMA-style chokehold” and repeatedly knocked out in an attack by three bikers.
CCTV footage appears to show locals attacking Luke while he is sat bleeding on the ground in the small Thai town of Pai on May 20, Bristol Live reports.
The air conditioning engineer, who has three children aged from eight to 14, suffered horrific injuries which led to doctors surgically removing his left eyeball and reinserting it so he could regain vision.
But Luke claims Thai authorities then charged him with an unknown offence and placed him in a cell before he was bailed, although the threat of returning to jail still hangs over him.
He said: "They are saying it was a fight, but it clearly wasn’t. I was attacked and I threw a couple of punches in self-defence. Now I’m stranded in Thailand.”
Luke got together with his Thai wife Sayforn Phetkajang four years ago, when they met in a Muay Thai boxing camp where she was his trainer.