A simple internet search produces hundreds of websites geared up to introducing Western men to single Thai women. Such websites post pictures and videos of hundreds of would-be Thai brides, from which prospective British husbands can choose a potential partner.

A story in the Bangkok Post last month described Thailand as fast becoming the land of foreign son-in-laws, with the number of cross-cultural marriages rising at around 10 per cent a year.

Of the 6,124 married couples registered at the Bangrak District Office in Bangkok in 2006, 50 per cent of them were between Thai women and Western men, it said.

Roi Et, where Mr Beeston had set up home with his Thai wife Wacheerawan, is a largely rural area located in the north-east of Thailand and is one of the country’s poorer provinces.

Giles Rycraft, who used to work in the advertising department at the Harborough Mail, has been living in Bangkok on and off since 1996 and said Roi-Et is a place where many foreigners find Thai brides.

“It’s no coincidence that it’s also one of the poorest provinces in the country,” he added.

“Many Westerners marry younger women and the local men find it an insult to them. Many of the women are involved with men already, but source Westerners and keep up their old relationships hoping that the old, Western, culturally-unaware gent will not realise.

“The Thai guy accepts it as they guess it won’t last or the guy will pass away before too long, or the woman will end the marriage and return to her Thai partner, making it look like a relationship that didn’t work out.

“I feel for anyone locally who knew him, and of course his family. He does sound like a genuinely kindhearted man. It seems he was an upstanding member of the community who got wound up in something that was beyond him forseeing.”