In very poor taste

KATHU: Police arrested a 66-year-old English language teacher from Canada on charges of sexually molesting a minor, after the man allegedly enticed his five-year-old student to perform oral sex on him by covering his penis with honey. At 9:40 pm on April 18, a team of Kathu District Police officers led by Pol Capt Serm Kwanimit entered the home of the suspect at 78/3 Moo 4, on Soi Pattana in Chalong. They had a warrant for the man’s arrest on charges of sexually molesting a child under 15 years of age. Thus far the man, who has been living in Thailand for six months every year in recent years, has denied the charges. The suspect, the correct English language spelling of whose name was not available as this went to print, was allegedly hired by a 40-year-old Thai woman to provide daily English language lessons to her five-year-old adopted son at a rate of 3,000 baht a month. The lessons were held near the end of February in a government-provided apartment for employees of Patong Hospital, where the man’s Thai wife was employed as a nurse. The boy’s mother told police she had been sending her son to study with the Canadian every day in the late afternoon. All appeared to be going well, until one day she was walking along Patong Beach with the boy when they saw a woman selling bottles of honey from two baskets suspended from a shoulder pole. When the boy noticed the brand of honey she was hawking, he recognized it and told his mom, “that kind of honey is sweet”. When she asked how he knew this, the ugly truth was revealed. The boy said his English teacher rubbed honey of the same brand on his penis at the end of every lesson and then put his sex organ into the boy’s mouth. The teacher then masturbated himself to orgasm, the woman quoted her son as innocently revealing. Upon learning this, the mother immediately filed a complaint with the Kathu Police and ended the boy’s English lessons. At about the same time, the man’s wife quit her job and the pair moved to Chalong, where he was eventually arrested. Police said the investigation into the man had to be conducted though police in Bangkok, which explained the delay in making the arrest. Police were last reported to be investigating further to see if any similar charges were filed against the suspect in the past.