Prurience leads to arrest, charges”¦ and hospital

PATONG: A laborer who molested a Czech tourist early on Saturday morning ended up in hospital with a broken leg and the prospect of a prison sentence. Pol Col Kokiat Wongvorachart, Superintendent of Kathu police station, told the Gazette that the tourist, 20-year-old Jana Mikulasona, was staying in the Kalim Apartments with her American boyfriend. The two went out on Friday night to the Banana discotheque. Feeling hungry, Ms Mikulasona left the disco, went to McDonald’s, and then took her burger and Coke across the road to the beach. There, she was approached by Jitti Sriklam, a 19-year-old laborer from Nongkhai. He later told police that he had been drinking and was experiencing “sexual emotions”. He attempted to kiss and hug her and then tried to remove her clothes. Ms Mikulasona screamed for help, bringing local people to her rescue. Jitti tried to run away but fell over a beach chair in the dark and broke a leg. Despite his injury, police say, he continued to crawl toward the sea, thinking he might lurk in the water. Skulking across the sand, he shed his clothes, apparently feeling that this might make him more difficult to see. Twenty police turned their car headlights on the sea and spotted Jitti. After a struggle, two officers pulled him out of the water. Pol Col Kokiat said that Jitti confessed and was thereupon charged with “immoral conduct”, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 20,000 baht. Ms Mikulasona, after a hospital check revealed that she was fine, was reunited with her boyfriend, still in the Banana disco and quite unaware of the events on the sand. Jitti, meanwhile, remains in hospital, awaiting an operation on his leg and an appointment in Phuket provincial court.