Police rescue 3 women & 2 kids held captive for 3 years in a Bangkok condo

Police rescued three women and two children from a condominium in Bangkok after being held captive for three years by their unscrupulous bosses. The two suspects were arrested yesterday.

Police raided the luxury condominium on Arun Amarin Road in the Bang Phlat district of Bangkok and rescued the five victims being held by a transwoman and her employee after being notified by a victim’s relative.

The victims were reported to be 46 year old Pairin, 34 year old Ploy, 48 year old Khaimook, 10 year old Ya, and 6 year old Chay. The two children were Pairin’s son and daughter.

The victims were forced to get their hair cropped short and the boy was forced to dress like a girl. Pairin and Khaimook revealed they were scaled by their employers regularly and revealed hot water burns on their bodies. The two children also had several wounds and bruises on their faces and eyes.

Pairin, Ploy, and Khaimook informed the police that they were former nurses at a well-known hospital in Bangkok but quit to work for the transwoman, 39 year old Haru Hawangsiri, aka Park Seohyun, in a collagen supplementary business.

Haru told the women she was a half-Japanese, half-Korean investor, could speak six languages and formerly worked for the US Embassy. Convinced by her seeming authenticity, they resigned from the hospital and invested more than five million baht into her business.

Soon after the women began working for Haru, she hit them with a 140 million baht fine. The transwoman said they made clients angry and they wanted their money back. Unable to pay, Haru locked the women and children in a room and forced them to work off the debt.

The victims said Haru’s employee, 20 year old man Triphetcharat Noppachon, controlled and did most of the punishment.

Pairin added that Triphetcharat poured boiling water over them and that she was forced to hit her children. If she refused to do so the young man would pour hot water over her children.

Khaosod reported yesterday that Haru and Triphetcharat were arrested and initially charged with two sections of criminal law.

Firstly, they were charged under Section 259 of the Criminal Law related to an offence against life and body: causing injury to the body or mind of others. They will be punished by imprisonment of up to two years, a fine of up to 4,000 baht, or both.

Secondly, they were charged under Section 309 of the Criminal Law related to an offence against liberty and reputation: extorting another person to do or not to do any act, putting the fear of injury to life, body, liberty, reputation or property to make another person suffer, or committing violence to force another person to do or not to do any act. They will face imprisonment for up to three years, a fine of up to 6,000 baht, or both.

Thairath reported that Haru has form for this type of behaviour. In the past, the transwoman was charged with attacking former patients and fraud but escaped court prosecution because she changed names nine times to hide her real identity.

The report did not confirm whether Haru was half-Japanese or half-Korean.

Police reported that the two suspects are still under questioning to discover their intention and motive to imprison and abuse the victims.

The victims were sent to a Police General Hospital for a health check and treatment.