Police chief suspended as Pattaya pool villa suspects fess up

The chief of Chon Buri police has been suspended pending an investigation into his connections with fake suspects organised to confess to an assault and shooting case at a Pattaya pool villa in central Pattaya last month.

National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas transferred Pol Maj Gen Kittanate Thanananthavisin to an inactive post at the Royal Thai Police Department Operations Centre in Bangkok.

He is being investigated for perverting the course of justice by allowing the real culprits to escape prosecution by switching them with two paid stand-ins.

On October 18, five people stormed a pool villa in a resort in the Jomtien-Pattaya area, attacking and injuring its occupants. The suspects also fired three vehicles at the villa. The case, in the heart of Pattaya’s expat district, attracted international press attention.

Before the alleged shooting, a man knocked on the door of the villa and asked the renters if they recognised a photo of a man on his phone. All the renters shook their heads, and the man left. But 15 minutes later, the man reappeared in a car with five gunmen who sprayed bullets at several parked vehicles.

The next day, five suspects surrendered to local police and allegedly confessed to the assault.

According to Pol Gen Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, deputy national police chief, investigators found that two of the five had been hired to pose as suspects thus allowing the real culprits to escape prosecution.

Boonrit Jitma and Salarun Yodthad told Big Joke’s team that they were given 1,000 baht each to confess to the crime and that they did so out of gratitude for someone they “respected highly.”

Surachate said the two were each handed a year in jail, commuted to six months as they had cooperated with investigators.