Thai man and transwoman arrested on child porn charges
Police arrested a Thai man and a transwoman for making and selling child porn. Three female victims were rescued, the youngest was only 13 years old.
Officers from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) and Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reported two successful crackdowns on the production and sale of child pornography to the media yesterday, January 29. The suspect in the first case was a 20 year old Thai man named Krittidate, and the second case was a 19 year old transwoman named Supamongkhon.
In the first raid, ATPD officers discovered a group on a social media application advertising the sale of pornography to its members. The group administrator claimed that the videos were of him having sex with his younger sister. The videos were available for 25 to 50 baht.
Officers posed as customers and bought the videos for further investigation. They were able to identify the girl in the video and discovered that she was only 13 years old. Officers brought the girl in for questioning and learned that the man in the video was her boyfriend, Krittidate.
The girl explained that she met Krittidate on a dating site and became his girlfriend after talking to him for a while. The girl said she was willing to have sex with Krittidate but did not want him to record their activities but Krittidate insisted on doing so. The victim said she trusted Krittidate and did not expect him to sell her videos.
Krittidate claimed that he did not want to sell the video but could not earn enough to cover his cost of living expenses so added he had no other option.
Transwoman
In the second arrest, ATPD officers discovered a social media account inviting followers to buy a package to watch porn. The account posted a short version of each porn video to attract the attention of its followers. Officers focused on a video showing two couples having sex in the same bed, as the girls in the video looked younger than 18.
Officers posed as customers and bought the packages, which were available in three prices, including 199 baht for VIP, 999 baht for VVIP and 2,599 baht for Super VIP. Officers discovered the video inside the package and conducted a further investigation until they successfully identified the two girls.
The girls were under 18 years old, just as the police suspected. They explained that their older transwoman friend, Supamongkhon, invited them and their boyfriends to travel to Pattaya. Supamongkhon then asked to film them having sex but did not tell them the purpose of the recording.
The girls said they trusted Supamongkhon and respected her as their sister and agreed to comply with her request. They had no idea Supamongkhon was behind the social media account that sold the porn.
Officers did not reveal the official charges issued against Supamongkhon, but Krittidate faces two charges including:
- Committing human trafficking by seeking benefits from child pornography. The penalty is imprisonment from six to 15 years and a fine from 600,000 to 1.5 million baht.
- Producing, selling, possessing, importing, or exporting child pornography. The penalty is imprisonment from three to 10 years and a fine of 60,000 to 200,000 baht.
