Man arrested for exploiting Big Joke’s name to lure and rape woman

A Thai man was arrested by the police for using the name of Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, the Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police (RTP), to entice female party entertainers to work for him before allegedly raping them.

A Thai party entertainer named Aom reported to the media and police on Tuesday, April 25 that she had been raped by a man named Wathanyu. According to Aom, Wathanyu hired her and other party entertainers to take care of clients at his party on March 28 at a hotel in Bangkok.

Wathanyu claimed that all the party attendees were team members working for Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, the Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, and showed a picture of himself dining with Big Joke to prove his claim. During the party, Wathanyu showed his gun and confiscated the mobile phones of every party entertainer.

Later on, Wathanyu forced Aom to go to a separate hotel room with him and used his gun to threaten her to take off her clothes and have sex with him. He even recorded a video to blackmail her if she reported the issue to the police.

Wathanyu hired Aom and other party entertainers to work for him again. Nobody refused him as he carried a gun all the time and knew many powerful people. Wathanyu even sent pictures of injured people to the group to threaten them not to reject his work.

After conducting an investigation, the police arrested Wathanyu on Wednesday, April 26 at his house in the Wang Sapueng district of Loei province in northeastern Thailand. They found three guns and bullets in his accommodation. Wathanyu was charged with violating Section 276 of the Criminal Law by using a gun to threaten and rape another person. The penalty for this crime is life imprisonment, 15-20 years imprisonment, or a fine of 300,000 to 400,000 baht.

In addition, Wathanyu also faced imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of up to 10,000 baht, or both for violating Section 8 of the Act on Firearms, Ammunition, Explosive, Fireworks, and Imitation Firearm: carrying a gun in a public place without permission and necessary. The police have also reported that Wathanyu has been arrested twice before, once in 2012 for wearing a fake uniform of a government official, and again in 2021 for fraud.