Police volunteer arrested for assault, abduction of estranged wife

Last night police in Muang district of Buri Ram arrested a police volunteer accused of assault and abduction of his estranged wife after threatening her, handcuffing her and dragging her away from her relatives. While the woman was later set free, she suffered serious bruising on her body.

The police volunteer is nicknamed Elephant and police picked him up at the entrance to the Ban Yang village where he volunteers. They also confiscated a motorcycle, a pair of handcuffs, and the knife possibly used in the assault.

The 48 year old man is alleged to have broken into a house where his 60 year old estranged wife was staying at her younger sisters house at around 10 am yesterday. He reportedly assaulted her and handcuffed her and then dragged her to his motorcycle holding a knife to her neck before throwing her on the bike and fleeing.

Relatives at the house at the time were stunned but managed to capture some video of the assault and called the police to report the incident.

After holding her captive for most of the day, the man allegedly released her at 7 pm when she returned home bruised and exhausted. She suffered injuries during the assault from the handcuffs on her wrist, and on her legs and knees from being dragged.

The man allegedly confessed guilt to the assault to the police saying that his wife had been staying at her sister’s house for 3 months and was sick. After so much time, he became paranoid that she had a new lover prompting him to break into her house to confront her. When he says she didn’t listen, he flew into a rage, handcuffed her and dragged her off.

The suspect in the assault told police said he was in a very emotional state due to his love for her and panic about losing her. He said he had no intention of hurting her in any way and wanted to apologize for what he had done. Witnesses, however, said the alleged “emotional state” appeared more like the use of drugs, and urine tests showed methamphetamines in his system.

The wife said that this was not the first time he had intimidated her and that, while he released her because she promised to return to him, after the incident she has no intention of going back to him. While she did not have to press charges oh, the woman said she will let the police take any necessary action against him.

Any charges from the incident will be added to the charge of taking meth.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post