Thai-German man arrested for sexually assaulting daughter and distributing child porn

Officers from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) arrested a half Thai half German man in northeastern Thailand on January 14 for sexually assaulting his seven year old daughter and distributing child porn online.

The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany, Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), handed over information and evidence on the Thai-German suspect, identified only as Tony, to the DSI on July 20 last year. The BKA reported that Tony was suspected of sexually abusing his daughter and several other young girls between the ages of seven and 10.

Tony also distributed child pornography, including the footage of his daughter, via the dark web and most of the users were German. Further investigation by German police revealed that Tony lived in a province in the northeastern part of Thailand.

DSI searched Tony’s home and arrested him yesterday, January 14. His daughter, born to a Thai woman, lived with him in the house but information about his wife was not mentioned in the report.

Officers found more than 10,000 files of child pornography on his computer, some of which had been shared on the website. The explicit images and videos included other young girls of different ages and races, prompting officers to carry out further enquiries in search of other victims.

Tony is in police custody at the Bangkok Criminal Court awaiting trial. The court denied his request for bail. Tony faces six charges, including:

• Section 277 of the Criminal Law: sexually assaulting a minor under 13 years old. The penalty is imprisonment from seven to 20 years and a fine from 140,000 to 400,000 baht, or life imprisonment.
• Section 279 of the Criminal Law: committing indecent acts against a minor under 13 years old. The penalty is imprisonment from one to 10 years, a fine from 20,000 to 200,000 baht, or both.
• Section 285 of the Criminal Law: sexually assaulting a descendent. The penalty will be one-third harder than the penalty stated in Sections 277 and 279.
• Section 287/1 of the Criminal Law: possession and distribution of child pornography. The penalty is imprisonment of up to seven years, a fine of up to 140,000 baht, or both.
• Section 14(4) of the Computer Act: importing indecent information into the computer system which the public is likely to access. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
• Section 14(5) of the Computer Act: distributing information with the knowledge that it violates the Computer Act. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to 100,000 baht.