Nine alleged pedophiles arrested in Northern Thailand

Police yesterday arrested nine alleged pedophile men for having sex with underage girls in Kalasin province.

The arrests were part of a bigger sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation operation in Kalasin province, in Northern Thailand.

Police from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) apprehended the suspects in the northeastern province yesterday. The ATPD reported that one of the suspects voluntarily surrendered while another was already serving time in Kalasin provincial prison for drug offences. The other sexual deviants were arrested separately in Kalasin.

The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for enticing girls aged under 18 into lewd activity, regardless of whether consent was given, and depriving girls aged 15 to 18 years of parental care for commercial and sexual purposes.

The nine suspects were identified as 68 year old retired teacher Uthai, 37 year old Jirapong, 48 year old Changwat, 60 year old Thongchai, 49 year old Thotsaphon, 45 year old Surachai, 38 year old Apirak, 37 year old Sarayut, and 44 year old Krisanat.

ATPD commander, Pol Maj Gen Wiwat Khamchamnan, revealed the arrests were made on the back of an earlier case in Kalasin of people involved in human trafficking.

“Police then extended the investigation leading to the nine arrests. One of them surrendered to police at ATPD sub-division 3 and another one was being held at Kalasin provincial prison.”

Pol Col Manoon Kaewkam, superintendent of ATPD sub-division 3, reported that most of the suspects denied the charges.

“They insisted they had not bought sexual services from those girls and had been wrongly implicated.”

One of the men had been arrested in June and was in the possession of 4,000 methamphetamine pills.

“The man had allegedly threatened a girl, warning her not to implicate him in the sexual abuse case.”

Pol Maj Gen Wiwat warned parents to closely monitor the behavior of their children in the area in matters of spending and buying unnecessarily expensive things. He also asked them to watch for any odd behaviour in their kids.

Pictures courtesy of brighttv.co.th

SOURCE: Bangkok Post Naewna News Bright TV