Bangkok taxi driver who snapped himself raping teen gets jailed

A Bangkok taxi driver who photographed himself raping a Burmese teenager in April has now been sentenced to jail by the Criminal Court. The driver, 39 year old Adirek Sae Bae, was initially sentenced on August 2 to 15 years in prison, however, his sentence was reduced to 13 years and nine months after he pleaded guilty.

The victim, a 17 year old girl, had been in Bangkok seeking a job. She told police her aunt made a Facebook post to try to help her find one. Adirek then commented on the post and said he would employ the girl. He used a photo of someone else for his profile picture.

On April 1, Adirek reportedly drove to the girl’s house and said he would drive her to the employer. But instead, he took her to a ‘love motel.’ There, he told her to wait in a hotel room to take an antigen test. He came back to the room, handcuffed her, raped her, and photographed the incident on his phone.

Adirek then stole the girl’s phone and 500 baht in cash, before taking her to the Klong Tan police station. Once at the station, Adirek told the police the girl was an illegal migrant with no passport and left.

Adirek has now admitted to the charge of rape. Other charges include: depriving a person under 18 of liberty, obscenity, illegal detention, theft, and illegal possession of child pornography for personal gain. He was ordered to pay 351,760 baht plus interest in compensation to the victim.

Police had said the girl wouldn’t be charged for entering the country illegally because she was the victim of a crime. She would receive mental-health services before being able to return to Myanmar.

The Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, Surachate Hakparn, warned people yesterday to beware of social media scams involving fake job postings.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post