Unemployed Chiang Mai teacher arrested for child pornography

Police in Chiang Mai province have arrested an unemployed teacher after finding child pornography on his computers. The 33 year old man had previously worked as a music and dance teacher at a private school. He was reportedly paying a LINE app group to download sexual images of children as young as 10. Chiang Mai police collaborated with the Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children task force on Friday and raided the house, owned and occupied by “Chai,” whose surname was not given.

Officers arrested the man after they pornographic images of both male and female children on 2 laptop computers, 2 mobile telephones and several USB flash drives and SD storage cards. Chai reportedly admitted that he had downloaded all the materials after joining a group on the LINE app that charges for membership before files can be downloaded.

Chai is charged with possessing child pornographic material, which carries a maximum punishment of 5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht. Authorities will also investigate the LINE group for possible involvement in human trafficking.

The ICAC task force launched its “Save Children Operation” during the Covid-19 crisis when computer-related crimes spiked. In 56 days of operations in 24 provinces, they made 47 arrests and helped 100 victims, as well as seizing more than 150,000 images of child pornography.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand