A THAI barmaid is serving a 12-year prison sentence for the murder of Bury teacher Paul Mason.

Renu Thapthim was originally given 18 years by a Bangkok judge but the term was reduced by one-third after she immediately confessed to stabbing her 27-year-old boyfriend in the heart in a jealous rage.

The details were revealed at an inquest in Bury into the death of Mr Mason, a former Bury Grammar School pupil.

He was killed in February last year, just days after he left his family home in Falmer Close, Brandlesholme, and moved to Thailand.

The inquest was told that Thapthim told a Thai court earlier this year how she used a penknife to stab him in the chest. The blade punctured his heart and he died within seconds.

Thapthim, a bar girl in Bangkok's Nana Plaza district, said Mr Mason appeared at her bar, called Palschool, with an English woman he had just met.

Back at their apartment, Mr Mason, refused to tell his girlfriend where he and the woman had been for the evening. In a jealous rage, Thapthim picked up a pen-knife and stabbed him. She then stabbed herself in the chest before alerting a receptionist for help.

While recovering in hospital, Thapthim admitted to police that she had killed Mr Mason but claimed that it was in self-defence, a story which was later rejected by a judge.

Thapthim was spared the ultimate punishment for murder, execution, after Mr Mason's family made a passionate plea to the Thai authorities that her life be spared.

The inquest, held on Friday (Aug 27), formally concluded the investigation into Mr Mason's death. Coroner Mr Simon Nelson said that, in light of the criminal hearings against Thapthim, the only verdict could be one of unlawful killing.

Mr Mason's father, Les, told the inquest how his son was born in Radcliffe and attended Bury Grammar School, Holy Cross College and graduated from Staffordshire University in 1998 with a degree in English. He went on to undertake his teacher-training in London and went to Pakistan to teach English before returning to Bury.

In 2000, he began working at a Bolton-based construction magazine as a production assistant which helped pay for his holidays in Thailand. During three previous trips to Thailand he met Thapthim and the pair struck up a relationship. He helped her to learn English.

Mr Mason said: "Paul was quite a special, very caring young man and the world has become a poorer place because of his death."