4 Thai men remain at large after raping 16 year old girl in northern Thailand
A 14 year old girl and her mother are seeking justice after four men involved in the rape of the teenager remain at large despite the brutal incident taking place in April in northern Thailand. Huay Talang Police Station officers have been accused of ignoring the case, while the girl’s school has been charged with hiding the truth from the public.
The victim and her mother urged a Facebook page to spread her story in the public domain as the case has not progressed in nearly four months. The victim reportedly attempted to take her own life after the ordeal left her traumatised.
The Facebook page revealed that the sexual assault occurred at the house of one rapist in the Isaan province of Nakhon Ratchasima on April 28. The suspects were friends of the victim’s boyfriend, who lived near her house.
The Facebook page emphasised that the suspects still lived their normal lives and hung out together near the victim’s house without feeling any guilt. The page added that the older sister of one suspect even threatened to sue the victim for defaming her brother while she revealed the rape to the victim’s classmates.
The page accused the school director of trying to conceal the truth from the public to maintain the school’s reputation and pressuring the girl not to reveal the issue to the media.
The page stated that the victim and her mother had already moved out of the community and school due to the shame and embarrassment. The page demanded that the relevant departments provide justice to the victim.
Channel 3 reported an interview with the victim yesterday. The victim explained to the news agency that one of the suspects contacted her on the phone and invited her to go to a party at his house. She initially refused to join but later went there because the rapist said her boyfriend was there as well. He lied.
Upon arrival, she did not see her boyfriend. The group invited her to drink alcohol with them. She admitted she drank a little bit before the group approached and sexually assaulted her.
The victim’s mother revealed to the media that the suspects and their families initially agreed to pay 300,000 baht in compensation when the police got involved. In a twist to the story, one of the suspects accused the teenage girl of selling sex for money.
The mother said she received some money from the suspects but she did not want it. She demands justice and wants the rapists punished.
The superintendent of the Huay Talang Police Station, Sittiphon Timsungnoen, insisted that his police officers worked on the case according to process. His team gathered evidence and submitted it to the prosecutor in June.
Sittiphon claims that the police did not set the suspects free but added that each of them had the right to be bailed. If the suspects and their family members did not stop insulting the victim and her mother, the police would later withdraw their temporary release.
The girl’s school stated that the school urged the girl to keep the issue away from the media to protect the girl’s reputation, not the school. The school insisted that they were willing to help the victim as much as they could.
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