Security guard beat delegate to death at medical conference after she complained about how many times he'd checked her security pass
- - Clive Carter repeatedly smashed delegate Khanokporn Satjawat over the head with fire
extinguisher - - Carter, 35, was 'obsessed with fire extinguishers' and had an image of one on his computer
- - Father of three, denied murder, claiming he had no memory of the incident
By WILMA RILEY
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Clive Carter was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing the tiny Thai delegate
A security guard who beat a delegate at a health conference to death with a fire extinguisher has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.
Clive Carter repeatedly smashed Khanokporn Satjawat over the head with the appliance in a rage after she complained about him repeatedly checking her security pass.
The pharmaceutical manager’s body was found on November 12 last year at an HIV medical conference in Glasgow’s Clyde Auditorium, part of the SECC complex.
Every bone on the left side of her face and neck was broken and her skull had been shattered into pieces.
Carter, a father of three, denied murder, claiming he had no memory of the incident and that he had a borderline personality disorder which meant he could not control his actions.
But a jury of eight men and seven women took just over three hours to find him guilty at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday after a trial.
Sentencing the killer to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff of 20 years, judge Lord Matthews said: ‘Khanokporn Satjawat was a hard-working, well-educated and dedicated lady who came to this country to participate in a conference whose purpose was the alleviation of suffering and the saving of lives.
‘It is cruelly ironic that in the course of such an event that the life of that fragile lady should be taken in such a brutal fashion with an instrument whose primary purpose is also the saving of life and the hands of a man to whom she should have been able to look for assistance.’
Carter had admitted killing the Miss Satjawat but denied murder. A jury found him guilty of the crime after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow
Carter, 35, is said to have been obses
sed with fire extinguishers and had an image of one on his computer. Only eight days before the murder he had terrified another young woman by knocking on her hotel room door with an extinguisher, claiming he had come to put out a fire.
The court heard he snapped after Miss Satjawat questioned him over repeatedly being asked to show her conference ID pass. He picked up a fire extinguisher, followed her into the ladies’ toilets and bludgeoned her to death.
The 6ft 5in security guard admitted killing the tiny Thai delegate, who weighed only six and a half stone, but claimed he had no memory of the incident.
Carter, 35, is said to have been obsessed with fire extinguishers and had an image of one on his computer
He earlier told the trial the words ‘die, just die’ were in his head as he argued with Miss Satjawat. But after attacking her in the toilets, he went into the staff room and calmly ate the sandwiches he had for his lunch.
His victim’s body was discovered lying in a pool of blood by two French doctors who saw Carter leaving the ladies’ toilets holding the fire extinguisher.
However, he tried to cover up his brutal crime by washing blood off his weapon, hiding his blood-stained blazer and telling police he had seen a mystery Asian man carrying an extinguisher.
The jury heard the security guard had significant anger management issues and had been sent for counselling, but left after two sessions when he became enraged by the counsellor.
He has a hair-trigger temper with women and was verbally and physically abusive to his 33-year-old wife Paula, whom he attacked and throttled, the court heard.
His victim, Miss Satjawat, had planned to be in Glasgow for the HIV drug therapy conference over five days and was booked into the city’s Marriott Hotel. She had written on Facebook about how excited she was to visit Scotland, and her sister gave a statement on her family’s loss to the court.
Carter was found guilty of murder and breach of the peace, after terrifying another young woman on November 4 last year. Stephanie O’Brien, 24, from Cumbria, was staying with three friends at the Holiday Inn Express in Stockwell Street, Glasgow, where Carter also worked as a security guard.
He knocked on her door with a fire extinguisher, claiming there had been a report of a fire, but she managed to close and lock the door on him.
Lord Matthews told Carter: ‘You are plainly, on the evidence, a man who is disturbed. However, you are deeply disturbing, as the evidence in this trial has amply demonstrated, including the evidence as to the events at the Holiday Inn Express.
‘One is left to wonder what the outcome might have been had Stephanie O’Brien not had the presence of mind to extricate herself from the hotel room before the situation escalated.’
After the killer was led away to start his sentence, the judge told the jury: ‘Miss Satjawat was a completely innocent individual who came here to enjoy a conference and her body went back to her sister.’
Detective Superintendent John McDonald, of Police Scotland, said last night: ‘This was a particularly brutal and senseless attack which claimed the life of an innocent woman and caused fear and alarm to those attending the conference at the SECC last November.
‘We sincerely hope that this verdict will bring some comfort to the relatives of Miss Satjawat.’
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