The telephone rang just after six o'clock on Monday morning. Now there are certain advantages in working from home, but early morning telephone calls are not numbered amongst them. The consulate officially does not open until nine. She spoke in a whisper and in obvious distress.

'I'm in terrible trouble. Could you please come to me immediately, I am in room 405 at the Chiang Inn Hotel. I don't dare say any more as he may be listening. Please come, I need help.'

What was an Honorary Consul to do? I went.

The curtains were drawn and only the bedside lamp was on. Elizabeth was attractive with long blond hair and wide set hazel eyes. She held her three-year-old daughter by the hand. This is the story she told me.

'I was a student nurse at the Mile End Hospital. At the weekends I had a job as a barmaid at the King's Head - it was one of those boisterous knees-up-Mother-Brown places in Whitechapel. Ted and his gang were regular customers and it was soon obvious to everyone that he had taken a fancy to me as indeed I had to him.

'Ted was a Thai from Chiang Mai, he was a professional boxer, handsome in a rugged way, he spoke with a broad cockney accent that I found most attractive. We got married and lived very happily in London for eight years after which time Ted decided to go home to help run the family guesthouse. That was when everything changed. His mother hated me from the first day. She treated me as a servant and I was virtually a prisoner, never allowed out alone.

'One night I escaped and went to a disco with a girlfriend. Mother reported this to Ted who beat me. From that time onwards I was regularly beaten for no reason at all. It was clear that Ted was in very bad company. He drank heavily and was taking some kind of drug and, I suspected, also selling drugs, he always carried a gun when he went out.

'Last night he beat me up again. Look, I will show you.' There were great bruises on her back and buttocks. ' I had had enough and so I packed a small case and sneaked out of the house with Suzie. Luckily I had some money and our return tickets to England , but Ted has taken my passport. Can you help us escape to England?'

'Does Ted know where you are?' I asked.

'Yes. I am certain that the hotel is being watched. He has many friends in the police.'

'Let me talk to the hotel manager.' I arranged to move Elizabeth to another room and that, if anyone asked for her, the staff should say she had checked out and not left a forwarding address.

My next task was to get her a new passport. I persuaded the police to allow me to file a lost passport report on her behalf. I had photographs take from one she happened to have. I then rang the Embassy in Bangkok and told them what was happening and that her application form would arrive by night-bus next morning. The Consul promised that he would send the new passport the same day by EMS.

Next my wife and I started on the travel arrangements. We booked their flight to England on Wednesday evening with Cathay Pacific. We bought tickets under a false name from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We contacted the Commander of Flight 41 and he agreed that I could take them through the prohibited Airforce area and straight into the VIP departure lounge. Cathay Pacific agreed to meet them on their arrival and take them from the domestic aeroplane directly to the international departure lounge without having to pass through immigration and customs.

On Wednesday morning I went to the Post Office and the Postmaster had the mailbags opened early so that I could get Elizabeth 's passport, which I then took to Immigration to have her visa stamped in it. I arranged with the hotel that they could be smuggled out of the kitchen door for we had heard that Jo had been asking after her all over town, he had also called the Embassy. I rang Elizabeth and told her that everything had been arranged for their secret departure and that Pat and I would pick them up at one o'clock, in three hours time and take them to the airport.

At eleven o'clock she telephoned. 'John, I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble. I have changed my mind. I really do love him. Ted is now on his way to pick me up and take me home.'

Sometimes the job of an Honorary Consul can be very frustrating; she did have the grace to send flowers to my wife. Six months later I heard that they had after all gone back to England without Ted .

John Shaw was the Honorary British Consul at Chiang Mai from 1990-1995