Secret mountain burial, revenge cycle, pest from the past

Struggling couple come clean

Niphon, or Beow

Two young parents in Nakhon Sawan have been charged with neglect leading to their child’s death after they buried the body of their two-month-old child on a mountain and tried to keep it a secret.

Niphon, or Beow (no surname given), 25, and his partner Warunee, or Fei (no surname given), 19, were nabbed after their friends alerted police to the fate of their son, Nong Bryan.

The parents revealed they had buried the child’s body about two weeks ago on Kop mountain in Muang district. They made the confession under intense questioning from their concerned friends, who filmed the exchange and handed the clip to police.

The couple say Nong Bryan was sickly from birth and stopped breathing of his own accord.

They say they panicked and rather than report the death to the authorities, secretly buried the body in a small 50cm-deep hole they dug with a knife and a piece of wood.

While denying they abused the child, they admit they were not capable of raising Nong Bryan properly and were not ready to bring a child into the world.

Warunee, or Fei

Their friends were instrumental in uncovering the dark deed, after noticing the child was no longer with the parents. One friend, Nipphat, or Mon (no surname provided), said he saw the parents walking about the apartment alone so asked where the boy had gone.

“They said someone had taken their son into care,” he told reporters after news of the arrests emerged. They also claimed the child was in hospital, or with Niphon’s mother.

Their friends grew suspicious, however, and confronted the pair one night, while also filming the encounter on a phone.

The father, Niphon, initially refused to say where the child was, but under pressure admitted he and his partner had buried the body.

Their friends were clearly unhappy to hear the news, with one saying they should have treated their son’s body better. Later the couple agreed to take them to the spot where Nong Bryan was buried.

One carried on filming as another dug into the hole and found the body, which was clothed in a nappy and had started to decompose. They contacted rescue workers and police later that night.

Police say they could find no sign of injuries on the boy’s body but have sent it for an autopsy.

“I was too scared to say anything. My mother loved the child and I thought she might go into shock if she heard he died,” Niphon told police, explaining their decision to keep quiet.

Niphon admitted to having tossed the infant from his bed once when they were playing together, but said the incident did not cause his death.

His friend Niphat, however, who helped raise the alarm, said he could see the pair were struggling and had offered to take care of Nong Bryan himself. “However, they went and buried him first,” he said.

The parents say they took their ailing child to see the doctor “constantly” and handed over notes from the hospital where he was treated.

They claim a doctor, who treated the child for a lung infection, released the child back into their care and told them to prepare for the worst.

However, claims of abuse also have emerged, with their friends accusing the pair of taking drugs in the presence of the child, and leaving him unattended, without food or water, for several days with just an air fan going to keep him cool.

One friend of the mother’s, Nong Thap Thim (no surname provided), said the couple would leave the child with others and not come back to collect him as arranged.

“He may have died because no one was feeding him, as they just weren’t interested,” she said.

Viewing CCTV images of the couple leaving their apartment without the child, one TV presenter remarked: “They seem much happier without the child in their lives”.

Police tested the pair for drugs but found no sign.

Niphon’s mother, meanwhile, said she knew Nong Bryan was often ill, though she did not have the chance to care for him much. News images taken at the police station showed she and her son in tears, with Niphon hugging his mother.

Police charged the pair with neglect of a child causing death and concealing a body. Further charges may follow depending on the autopsy result.

Riverside slaying reverb

The riverside hut where Somchai was living before his nephew attacked him.

A jailbird in Chachaoengsao who killed his uncle after he complained to police of assault has made good on his vow to kill him, but now faces a reprisal death threat of his own.

Bang Pakong police nabbed Phansa (no surname given), 36, for stabbing to death his uncle, Somchai (no surname given), 66, in Village 3 of Bang Pakong sub-district.

The victim’s body fell into a boat moored on a mudflat by the Bang Pakong River, the murder weapon still embedded in the right side of his chest. When police arrived, the suspect’s mother, Yupha (no surname given), 64, was in tears.

She said Somchai had been living in a hut by the river since his nephew was freed from jail recently and made repeated attempts to kill him.

“Phansa and his uncle had been at odds for years. Somchai chided him for sitting around at home rather than going out to find a job,” she said.

“The two refused to talk after that until one day when the two came to blows.”

Phansa, in a drug-fuelled rage, hit his uncle over the head with a piece of wood, leaving him with serious injuries. He complained to police and Phansa was jailed for assault.

Before he went in, Phansa threatened to kill his uncle in revenge. “Since getting out, he has made several attempts to kill his uncle, forcing Somchai to sleep in a hut by the river for his own safety,” she said.

On June 3, he finally made good on the threat.

“Phansa walked out of the house, heading in the direction of the hut. We tried to stop him but we were not quick enough,” she said.

Phansa, she said, hit his uncle and he fell off the bridge into the mud. Her son then pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim twice. Ms Yupha said she grabbed a piece of wood to hit her son in an attempt to stop Phansa, but wasn’t quick enough.

Following the attack, Phansa jumped in the river and swam to the other side close to Klang Bang Pakong temple. He walked out onto old Sukhumvit Road before police caught up with him.

Later, Somchai’s younger brother, a monk, turned up to inspect the body. In tears, he vowed that he would kill Phansa after he is freed from the inevitable jail sentence which awaits for killing Somchai.

Phansa, meanwhile, told police that he killed his uncle out of revenge, and that unlike last time, he wasn’t high on drugs. They charged him with murder.

Rape claim sparks threat

Complainant Biw

A woman in Udon Thani says she was raped by a group including the former boyfriend of her partner’s mother, though he denies it.

Police in Phen district say they were contacted by a woman identified as Piya (no surname given), 50, whose son, A, lives with the complainant, Biw (assumed name), 27.

She has a slight intellectual impairment but the two have been partners for three years and live at her place. On May 9 the pair argued and Biw packed up her stuff and left, intending to return to her home province of Phetchabun.

A relative of her partner’s called offering to take her to Udon Thani railway station. She waited another 20 minutes when Kai (no surname provided), 63, the former fling of A’s mother, turned up in a three-wheeled vehicle and offered to take her. When she refused, she says he slapped her face, punched her, and forced her in.

After driving to a remote soi he called three of his mates who turned up on motorbikes. He led them to a forest behind the Na Kha Subdistrict Administrative Organisation office in Muang district where she says he raped her, followed by his friends.

“Kai said that if I told anyone he’d kill the whole family,” she told police, adding the attack lasted several hours.

When they had left, she walked out to the road, where a passing motorcyclist took her to the police. Biw also went to hospital for a check-up and news reports said the family was awaiting the result of tests to see if she was raped.

Her partner’s mother, Piya, said she saw Kai for about two months. She called it off when she realised he had a family of his own but would flirt with anyone.

He was also a jealous type, and had a sadistic streak. “It ended with a big argument when her son had to intervene, and he promised vengeance,” news reports said.

Piya contacted the media last week after their rape complaint to police failed to make progress. Kai, who spoke to TV reporters from his home, denied attacking Biw. He threatened to take legal action for harming his reputation. The case continues.

Murder mystery, convict out of ammo, cop's drug tip-off

Wily old mum blames son

The house where the killing took place.

A Surat Thani man and his elderly mother are at odds over whether he killed her husband in the dead of night in an inheritance dispute, in a classic whodunnit which has Thais stumped.

Khian Sa police last week arrested Prasit Songsom for allegedly killing his father, Pong, 88, at their family home on May 26. In a particularly heartless murder, the killer strangled him with the cord from an electric fan and electrocuted him with a device intended for stunning fish.

Pong was alone with his wife Klueab, 87, at their single-storey home in the middle of the family’s palm oil plantation when the killer, wearing a balaclava and loin cloth around his face to disguise his identity, burst in the door.

Prasit

Ms Klueab was asleep in another room but heard the commotion and hid for two hours under a rattan bed from where she said she was able to witness the attack. She claims she was able to identify the attacker as Prasit, despite the disguise, from his gait and the outline of his face.

Mr Prasit, the fourth of the couple’s seven children, was a rebellious, angry type from childhood and both she and her husband were wary of him, she said.

She said the killer switched off the power supply to disable the CCTV cameras which the family had put up since another tragedy struck in September last year, when Mr Prasit’s sister, Sa-an, or Mui, 57, was murdered at the house. The killer beat her about the head and body with a hard object and stole 10,000 baht and her gold ring.

While the police say they were able to find the attacker’s DNA at the scene, they came up with no witnesses, as Sa-an was at home alone. No arrests had been made at the time of the fatal attack on Pong, though police, who charged Prasit with premeditated murder, say they believe he was also responsible for his sister’s death.

Klueab

Speaking to reporters as he was being taken to the Wiang Sa holding cells, Mr Prasit denied the charges and said he had been set up. He did not say who he thought was behind the killing, but claims he was at home with his wife Chim (assumed name) all night on May 26.

Police found a loin cloth at his house and two balaclava masks, one of which belonged to his wife. They seized them as evidence, along with a device used for applying electric shocks to stun fish.

Ms Klueab said she was sorry to lose her husband at the hand of her own son, but felt relieved he had been caught. “I thought it was him from the outset — 100 per cent,” she told reporters, adding she has keen eyesight despite her age. When the attacker burst in the door she was shocked, she said, but kept her cool as she is a tough old sort.

“On the morning of the attack, Prasit turned up on his motorcycle to say he’d been tapping rubber and picking cotton fruit, but I didn’t believe it. I reckon he was taking the lie of the land as he had a wild look in his eyes,” she added.

Early theories as to motive centred on inheritance issues. While the parents had divided up their farmland equally, 10 rai for each child, their house was still sitting on a 30 rai section which had yet to be allocated to anyone. Ms Klueab suspects her son was eyeing that for himself, as he had ran into financial trouble.

The killer, she said, may have come looking for her too, as she saw him training his torch about outside the house. However, when he moved away, she fled from under the rattan bed and into the plantation, from where she was able to seek help at her grandson’s house nearby.

Mr Prasit, however, said his mother is getting confused with age and was mistaken to claim it was him. He dismissed reports he had a gambling problem or was eyeing the family land. He was backed up by his wife Chim, who said she had never heard her husband discuss inheritance matters, or argue with his Dad.

Chim, who was at home alone with her husband on the night of the killing, said she went to bed at 8pm but was dimly aware of background noise from the main room where she could hear the TV.

Neighbours, however, who have emerged as key witnesses in the case, say they saw Mr Prasit’s Toyota vehicle leave the house about 8pm and return an hour later. He went out again about 11pm to drive to his father’s place with his wife after hearing that Pong had been slain. The house is about 26km away.

The neighbour, identified by the assumed name of Noom in news reports, said he suspected Chim lied to police when she claimed her husband was with her all night. “This is Chim’s fifth husband and she can see no wrong with him,” he said. Noom also claims Mr Prasit told her on the night of the killing what he had done, and she told a relative before word finally reached a police officer. The case continues.

Mass slaughter averted

 Chaiyut

A Min Buri man who killed his younger brother said he tried to kill the whole family but he ran out of bullets.

Min Buri police nabbed Chaiwat (no surname provided), 43, for slaying his younger brother, Chaiyut, 41 at their family home on soi Ramkhamhaeng 190/2 with a .38 calibre handgun.

Chaiwat, who was jailed years ago for assaulting his former wife and had only recently been released, had yet to find a job, which annoyed his younger brother, with whom he was often at odds.

On the day of the killing Chaiyut, who delivered NGV gas for a living, turned up with some durian for the family and again nagged his brother about finding work.

They started to argue, and Chaiwat, fed up, went upstairs to fetch his gun.

He told police later he had prepared the weapon three days before with the intent of killing everyone.

When he came back downstairs he shot Chaiyut in the nape of the neck, twice in the chest, and once in the back. He kept firing until the bullets ran out, with reports saying police gathered at least eight shells at the scene.

“He shot his younger brother first, then aimed at his mother, stepfather, and autistic brother but found the gun had run out of bullets,” one report put it. The killer wasn’t willing to apologise for what he did.

A neighbour, Naree, 67, said she was at home about 5pm when she heard shots ring out. The victim’s father ran out to say Chaiwat had killed his brother and asked for help.

Chaiwat fled on foot but police caught him later. They charged Chaiwat with premeditated murder, attempting to kill, and firearms offences.

Missing property appeal

The drugs found on a bypass road in Khu Muang district.

A Buri Ram policeman with a sense of humour has appealed to the owners of a drug package he found by the side of the road to come forward and claim their missing property if they are game.

Pol Lt Col Chanarong Chaisakorn, or Inspector Nui of Hin Lek Fai station, as he is popularly known in the Thai media, posted the message on Facebook after coming across three packs of 6,000 ya ba pills on a bypass road in Khu Muang district.

Addressing the owners as he would any member of the public, but without spelling out the package was, in fact, illegal drugs, he wrote: “If you forgot a package by the side of the road, you can collect it at Hin Lek Fai station. Best wishes from the police.”

Pol Lt Col Chanarong said he was going into town to buy some supplies when he came across three dogs with packages between their teeth.

“I worked in drugs and thought I recognised the packages. I put them in the car and went on to buy my goods. When I got home I inspected the packs and found they were indeed drugs, so I took them to the station.

“I posted on FB to confirm they had been taken as evidence. I did it in a humorous vein as I know no one will come forward to collect them,” he said, adding he suspects drug traders had left them on the roadside for customers to collect, but the dogs had found them first.

Chanarong tends his farm animals.

Pol Lt Col Chanarong hit the news in February when reports emerged that he raises cows and pigs in his spare time. After the animals have been butchered, he sells sliced pork, spicy pork sausage and sun-dried beef from their meat to help make ends meet.

Monk caper; bullet in bed; undertaker’s woe; polite robber

Naughty in the saffron robes

Sanan cries while calling his wife.

An Uthai Thani man is calling on his estranged wife to reconsider after she allegedly ran off with an errant monk.

Sanan (no surname provided), 61, pleaded tearfully via the media for his wife, Nanthawan (no surname provided), 53, to return to their marital home in Nong Chang district, which she left on May 9.

Sanan said he is willing to forgive her indiscretions with the monk, Phra Thongkham. He also wants her help caring for their 30 cats and dogs, not to mention paying off their combined 500,000 baht debt.

The couple were together more than 30 years when Nanthawan took a liking to the monk from nearby Wat Nong Krathum.

Phra Thongkham, 58, originally from Surin, was booted out of the temple about the same time as Sanan’s wife disappeared after the abbot caught them together, confirming her husband’s suspicions that they had drawn too close.

The abbot, Phra Athikanrawai Mahawiriyo, chased Phra Thongkham out of the temple on May 8 after witnessing him and Nanthawan behaving inappropriately.

“What are you doing?” the abbot, who had secreted himself behind the temple kitchen where he knew the couple liked to meet, bellowed at the pair when he saw them standing so close to each other they could have been hugging.

Phra Thongkham

Like naughty school children, they quickly pushed each other away.

Nanthawan was a frequent visitor to the temple under an arrangement with the abbot where her husband would pick up leftover food to help defray the cost of feeding the large number of cats and dogs they raised at home. Nanthawan would do the dishes at the temple in return.

The abbot used to oversee the arrangement himself, but after Phra Thongkham, whose quarters were nearby, and Nanthawan exchanged numbers, he left the job of overseeing things to the monk, who was with the temple for five years before he strayed.

“I had heard about them carrying on for some time. If locals found out, the temple would suffer, so I tossed out the monk when he refused to swear that he had done nothing wrong,” Phra Athikanrawai said, while cheerfully showing reporters the spot where he saw the couple standing. Monastic rules forbid contact between monks and women.

Sanan said he had been suspicious about his wife’s contact with the monk for the past year or so. “She would often get home from the temple as late as 10pm even though the temple is just 2km away,” he said.

The monk’s name would show up on her phone when he called. When she left on the morning of May 9, she dropped off their saleng vehicle with a relative at a local market and he hasn’t seen her since.

“The night before she left, I took my wife into my arms and told her that I loved her. I asked if she loved the monk. She denied it, as she said he already had a wife,” he added.

Talking to reporters on May 21, he said his wife had called their daughter a few days before to say she wanted to be with the former monk.

However, his wife’s elder sister, who denied Nanthawan had strayed, told him his wife had found a job on a building site in another province and would return.

“When I called her back she said my wife in fact would not be coming back as she was upset I had gone to the media,” he said.

“You told them the story that she had run off with the monk, harming her reputation,” the sister complained. The saga continues.

‘Friends’ cross the line

Pichet holds a gun as he confronts his girlfriend outside her room.

A teen in Samut Prakan shot an older acquaintance after catching him getting too close to his girlfriend.

Bang Phli police found the body of Pongsakorn Chuenmee, 22, on the bed of a rented place which he shared with a bunch of youngsters, including the killer’s girlfriend.

They found four shells from a .38 nearby and the room festooned with drug taking gear, including syringes. Pongsakorn was shot four times including once in the eye and the neck.

The killer, Pichet, or Arm (no surname given), 18, took a motorcycle taxi to the police station to hand himself in following the shooting.

He said he burst into the room to find Pongsakorn and his girlfriend in each other’s arms. They were sleeping there along with four or five others.

He and Pongsakorn argued while the others, including his girlfriend, waited outside. When the sound of gunfire rang out, they ran for cover.

Arm, who shot the victim twice initially, followed his girlfriend outside and the pair argued.

Still unhappy, he went back inside and shot the victim another two times before leaving out the back and hailing the motorcycle taxi.

Arm said he and the victim would run into each other often. When he met his girlfriend, he introduced them, and before long suspected they were up to no good.

“I opened the door once and saw both in each other’s arms. Before the latest incident, I took a look at her phone and found a chat there which removed any doubt,” he told police.

He shot the victim with a gun which a trades student friend had left in the room with him.

His girlfriend, unnamed in news reports, said Arm misunderstood. She and the others including the victim lived together and were simply close friends, she said.

However, he was jealous and could not accept their friendship. Police charged him with premeditated murder.

Undertaker meets grim fate

Two brothers arrested for killing the undertaker.

Two brothers in Udon Thani were nabbed after stabbing to death the local undertaker for charging too much for a relative’s funeral.

Police in Kut Chap district found the body of Urai Khampeng, 65, undertaker at the village temple, lying in front of a grocery store.

He was killed in a fight, captured on CCTV, with brothers Yutthapong Chaiwan, 32, and Adisak Chaiwan, 30. They took off on a motorcycle, leaving their weapons behind.

Police found a fruit knife, sugar cane knife, and Sparta knife at the scene, though the Sparta knife may have belonged to the undertaker, who earlier used it to stab Mr Yutthapong in the hand when the row first erupted.

The brothers, who were drunk and had taken ya ba pills the night before the attack, accused the undertaker of over-charging for their grandfather’s funeral.

Police following up the attack found Mr Yutthapong in front of his house on a hammock, listening to music.

A machete and an axe were by his side.

Wary officers deployed a hook, forked stick and shield to nab him. However, he was in no fit state to resist.

“He said he didn’t know they had killed the victim,” one officer said later. The victim and his two attackers were relatives but it made no difference.

Officers searched for his brother Adisak for an hour, without success, so asked his relatives to bring him in.

Both suspects, who tested positive for drugs, were still groggy and hallucinating.

“They said they took three ya ba pills the day before, and drank lao khao (a fiery Thai spirit).

So fortified, they decided to go and seek vengeance for the stabbing,” police said. The brothers were charged with premeditated murder and taking drugs.

A ‘wai’ for your gold

Nopparat gives a wai before robbing the gold shop.

A gold shop robber in Samut Sakhon distinguished himself with his good manners when robbing a store, but nonetheless brought two guns.

Nopparat “Mo” Rompho, 22 robbed the Hang Thong Yaowarat Krungthep goldstore at Big C Mahachai 2 in Muang district on May 17. He took five necklaces each worth three baht weight in gold.

The young man fled on a motorcycle but police tracked him down three days later to a hideaway in Muang district.

CCTV images show the man was unusually polite. Walking in on the day of the robbery, wearing a crash helmet and the green livery of a delivery man to help disguise his identity, Mr Nopparat gave staff a wai and said, “Please give me permission to rob you.”

That was an unusual opening line, and must have taken staff by surprise. One woman behind the counter, in fact, appears to be smiling.

It was to be followed by: “Please grab your necklaces, and put them in the bag if you don’t want to get shot.” Mr Nopparat lifted his shift to reveal two guns on his waist. “And please do it quickly, too,” he added.

Mr Nopparat said he stole the gold to ask for a girl’s hand in marriage. He knew he would need money for a dowry and hoped the robbery would help pay for it.

He wore a rider’s uniform as he used to work as a rider, though had since quit. As for the guns, they belonged to his Dad.

Asked why he asked staff for permission to rob the place, he said his good manners came naturally because his parents taught him to be polite. “They taught me well, but didn’t finish the job as I ended up a robber,” he said.

Police charged him. It was unclear how much of the gold they were able to recover.

Flying poo saga hits home, naughty monk tries out screenshots

Hermit rescued from decrepit room

The apartment from hell where a man lived in squalor for 17 years.

A complaint over flying poo in the Ratchada area lifted the lid on a dark saga in which a psychiatrically ill man is said to have launched the projectiles from his room where he lived in squalor for 17 years.

Social media activist Guntouch “Kan” Jompalang said a local, Wiphonrat Paomaiman, also known as Aunty Pha, had appealed for his help after dodging human faeces thrown from a nearby apartment for months.

She said the man she believes is responsible tosses raw human faeces out the window of his place in soi Suea Yai (soi Ratchadaphisek 36), on a whim, making the lives of those below a misery. “We live in constant apprehension we will be struck,” she told reporters.

She moved to the area four or five months ago to be close to a hospital where her husband is receiving care. But the flying poo menace, according to neighbours, had been going on unabated for two years.

The inside of his dreadful room.

The man would toss his faeces from the window four or five times a month. Anyone who passed by on the street below could be hit. 

“We can’t park our vehicles down here, nor do we dare hang out the washing, or plant trees. Whenever he thinks of throwing it, he just throws it,” she said.

Aunty Pha, who lives on the first floor, has had to clean up faeces stains from the walls and roof of her place as no one else would take responsibility. 

She had contacted the building’s juristic entity and Phahol Yothin police, to no avail.

“I have spoken to the man’s mother, but she refuses to acknowledge that her son is to blame. She asked for evidence, which forced me to get a CCTV camera installed. It shows clearly that the projectiles come from the place that he’s in on the fourth floor. “When I go up to the landing, the place stinks of faeces. But his mother refuses to get him help or admit there’s anything wrong,” she said.

TV coverage of the saga shows projectiles being launched from the apartment.

Activist Kan, who turned up with a large black umbrella for cover, himself tried talking to the parents, and made little progress. They insisted their son, 50, was happy living hermit-like in his room, which they claim he had not left to visit the outside world in 17 years.

Despite the room having no running water or electricity, according to media reports, his mother, who lives separately about 100m away, and delivers meals to her son’s room three times a day, insisted her son was getting proper care.

Kan said the parents refused to let him in to see their son. “He is happier where he is, and we do not want him to go anywhere else,” they are said to have told him. Neither parent appeared before the media, though Kan said the father was an associate professor in psychology, and the mother herself an associate professor.

Neither lacked an education but where their son was concerned did not want to listen to reason.

Guntouch ‘Kan’ Jompalang

The activist convinced police that a search warrant was necessary for the man’s own safety. Phahol Yothin police, accompanied by Chatuchak district staff and a mental health team, forced their way into the room after the man inside refused to let them in.

Scenes of filth and degradation greeted them. The room was full of faeces and years of accumulated waste.

“There was so much rubbish strewn about that he had no room left to sleep,” reports said. Media images showed the occupant, who was painfully thin, being taken in a stretcher to Somdet Chao Phraya Hospital for treatment.

Earlier, when Kan knocked on the man’s door, he opened it slightly but he spoke gibberish and refused to let anyone in. “The parents insisted the room was in a tidy condition, but the room I glimpsed through the door was a mess,” he said.

Wiphonrat Paomaiman

Asked to explain their son’s decision to live alone and refuse to emerge from his room, the parents said he came under social pressure from those around him.

“He never finished school, and wasn’t able to find work like our other kids, so started to hide from the world,” they said, adding he was also hounded from a bus, and teased by motorcycle taxi guys in the street.

Through all of this, the parents insisted their son was not mentally ill, nor in need of care. No surprise, then, that he did not take any meds.

Asked what would happen to their son if one day his parents were not around to deliver food, the parents claimed they had entrusted his care to others. The mother added cryptically: “The room is a sacred place, should something go wrong.”

Local body inspectors in Chatuchak may charge the family under a sanitation law, reports said. The case continues.

Ex-partner rips into monk

Sittipol or Puak

A woman in Bangkok claims her ex-partner, who entered the monkhood to escape online fraudsters from whom he duped money, forced her to parade naked during video calls.

Manita, 29, contacted the FB page Sai Mai Tong Rod, whose founder, Ekapop Lueangprasert, came to her aid.

Manita says her ex-partner, Sittipol, or Puak (no surname provided) entered the monkhood on April 28 in Uthai Thani to escape online fraudsters for whom he opened a mule account to receive victims’ funds.

He refused to hand over the 50,000 baht deposited in the account and spent it himself. When the gang tried tracking him down, he took shelter in the monkhood.

Meanwhile, Phra Sittipol, whom she described as a jealous type, called her almost every day, despite his mother declaring at the start of April that she was unsuitable for her son.

Manita and Sittipol started seeing each other at the start of the year. His mother in April asked them to quit, but Sittipol, she said, persisted.

Manita said Sittipol was still talking to his ex-girlfriend when they were together, but claimed he still loved her.

Manita having a shower while talking to Sittipol

“I still had a soft spot for him, so agreed to his demands,” she said, referring to Phra Sittipol’s request after he entered the monkhood that she parade about naked for the camera.

“He called me on video call almost every day and would ask if I was with anyone else,” she said. Phra Sittipol, she said, asked her to put on the camera while she showered, ostensibly so he could make sure she was not sleeping with anyone.

However, unknown to her, he also took screenshots of her naked and shared them with other monks. He also pulled out his penis for her to look at, she said.

He sent Manita a screenshot of her naked on May 7. Manita said she was shocked, but he insisted he took the screenshot just to look at it.

The next day, however, another monk contacted her on FB to warn both of them about their behaviour. He said such conduct was not appropriate, as her ex-partner was still a monk. He had taken shots of her naked and shown them to other monks, he said.

Manita said she felt embarrassed and contacted Taling Chan police. “My ex-partner threatened me, saying he has relatives who are police and he wasn’t scared. He is also a hothead and once threatened to wreck my shop,” she added.

Activist Mr Ekapop said he would liaise with police, who were likely to call Phra Sittipol in for questioning on Computer Crimes Act charges, for importing decent images into the system.

“You are no longer laity, and doing wrong like this is bound to have consequences in the real world and the monkhood alike,” he said, referring to the monk.

Phra Sittipol spoke to reporters on the phone, denying he initiated the video calls, or forced his ex-girlfriend to put the camera on while she took a shower. “She called me herself and voluntarily took off her clothes,” he said, while admitting he took the screen shots.

“I took them for the purpose of sending her a warning that it was not a good thing to do in front of a monk,” he said. He denies sending them to other monks or pulling out his penis.

Temple elders said Phra Sittipol had acquitted himself well during his stay there. The case continues.

Lotto saga packs punch, fatal canal fight, FB blooper

Revenge is sweet

The charred saleng.

A Roi Et man whose wife left him two years ago for another man, absconding with his lotto winnings, exacted his revenge when the two clashed in a row over a torched vehicle.

Thawat Buri police nabbed Manij Pranee, 51, and his son (no name given), 19, for murdering Prawit Sumapaso, 43, at the victim’s house in Ko Kaeo, Selaphum district.

Police say the pair stabbed Prawit to death after he burnt a saleng vehicle and sidecar which Mr Manij had earlier bought his former wife, Angkanarat Klanmanee, 47.

Manij Pranee

The victim and Ms Angkanarat were living together at the time of the attack, reports said, but an argument earlier that day led to him torching the vehicle in a fit of pique.

While the vehicle blaze was the immediate impetus for the attack, Mr Manij said his rage had been festering ever since Ms Angkanarat took off with Prawit and his lotto riches two years ago. “I gave them a chance and let them live together, but he went and set fire to the saleng I bought her,” he told reporters. “It was just deserts.”

Ms Angkanarat said Prawit destroyed the saleng after getting drunk and arguing with her on May 5. She told her ex-husband Mr Manij what happened, and together with their son and a relative, they went to Selaphum police.

On the way back, they dropped into the house she shares with Prawit in Ban Khok Kung village. Mr Manij, who forced his way inside, demanded to know why Prawit set fire to the vehicle. Prawit, he said, attacked him with a knife.

He struck back in self-defence, he claimed, denying witness claims that his son also took part in the killing. Prawit was found with 10 stab wounds to his body, and his left hand was almost completely severed.

The killing brought to an abrupt end a complex triangular love affair in which Ms Angkanarat at one point was living with two husbands, Mr Manij and Therdsak (no surname given), an invalid ex-soldier, before leaving home supposedly with her fling.

Angkanarat Klanmanee

Husband No 2, as news reports called Therdsak, had been with Ms Angkanarat for 10 years when she left home to live with Prawit. He later filed for a divorce.

Ms Angkanarat, Prawit, and Mr Manij, however, were still bound up in each other’s lives until the saleng fire drama forced matters to a head.

News reports last week say Ms Angkanarat and Prawit, husband No 3, ran away together shortly after Mr Manij won the 6 million baht first prize in the state lottery on Nov 1, 2022. She met Prawit at a dating site, they said.

Two years ago, Mr Manij, who has three children with Ms Angkanarat and had been with her 27 years, transferred the money to her account after they collected the winnings at the lottery office. He asked her to transfer back 1 million baht to make merit for monks, and another 100,000 baht for his own expenses, which she did. Another 1 million baht went on paying off their debts, reports said.

Shortly after they made merit for the monks, Ms Angkanarat vanished, supposedly with a secret admirer who turned up at the monks’ function and stayed on for a few days. He referred to himself as a relative, though the couple’s middle child said he heard later from a neighbour that the visitor behaved more like a secret lover.

Meanwhile, when Mr Manij checked with the bank, he found his absent wife had quietly withdrawn 2 million baht from the account. Ms Angkanarat claimed she was visiting Nong Khai province for a few days, but her son called to chastise her for taking off with a secret lover. Later he and his father went before the media in Bangkok to sound off, forcing her abrupt return.

Ms Angkanarat later reconciled with her husband, claiming she withdrew the 2 million baht to make merit and denying she left him for a secret lover. She transferred back to him 3 million baht, half of which they put into bank accounts to pay for their kids’ education. He kept the rest himself, so left her 100,000 baht for her own use.

Mr Manij, who appeared with her jointly before the TV cameras holding their own bankbooks, said his wife agreed to the deal on condition he move out of the house in three days. However, the two stayed in touch.

News reports say she moved in with Prawit. Though news reports two years ago were mute on the identity of her lover, and even accepted her claims upon her return that she had never found anyone, by last week when Prawit and Mr Manij clashed, all that had changed.

When Mr Manij recently moved back to the village where Ms Angkanarat was living with Prawit, reports said, she and Prawit started to argue, as Prawit resented her visits to her ex-husband. The owner of the rented house where the stabbing took place, Thongluen Prasertsang, said he saw both Mr Manij and his son attack Prawit. News reports say Mr Manij went armed with a machete, and his son a knife. Police charged the pair with jointly murdering Prawit.

Perils of teen love

The canal where the attack took place.

A 33-year-old man in Pathum Thani was killed by his teen lover’s friends after an encounter under a bridge erupted into violence.

Klong Luang police arrested “A” and “B”, both 15, who gave themselves up after killing Theerawut Kongkhathong, 33, under a bridge on Highway No 9 (Kanchanaphisek Road).

Theerawut, who worked in Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya, had earlier contacted his girlfriend, “C”, following an argument. The pair agreed to split up, but Theerawut asked for the return of a phone he had given her, and the two sides agreed to meet under the bridge, on Liab Klong Sam Road in Klong Sam district.

Theerawut turned up with a friend on the back of his bike, while C, for the sake of safety, invited two teen friends, both aged 15. They met on the night of May 4. Perhaps predictably, the two started to argue again, and Theerawut apparently hit her with his motorcycle helmet. The teens sprang to her defence, with one attacking Theerawut with a knife.

Theerawut jumped into the river, but his attacker followed him. It was only when a passerby saw the commotion and called out that the teens stopped and fled. By that time the victim was dead. Police charged the teen attackers with jointly killing the man.

It’s all in the look

Noppanat is arrested

A young man in Bangkok who attacked a stranger with a knife simply for looking at him was caught months later when his girlfriend betrayed their location via a social media post.

Commandos in Pathum Thani nabbed Noppanat Pansaen, 22, last week after he fled to the province following the attack on Thanandon Bunphan, 59, on Aug 11 last year. 

The attack took place in Bang Chan sub-district of Klong Sam Wa, leaving the man with serious injuries. Mr Thanandon said he was heading out for drinks at a friend’s place when two young men went past on a motorcycle. 

“I looked at them to see if I recognised the pair, but they took exception to that,” he told reporters. They returned and confronted him. “What are you looking at, or do you want trouble?” one young man asked provocatively.

Mr Thanandon cursed him, which led to the men attacking him with a knife and a plank of wood. “They knocked me out and the next thing I knew, I was in Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital,” he said later. A bystander came to his aid and he complained to police.

Officers looking for the suspect’s whereabouts heard that Mr Noppanat had fled to live with his girlfriend, but had yet to find out where. 

“His girlfriend then put up a story on FB which said they were visiting a temple in Pathum Thani. Officers saw the post, which led to his arrest,” one officer said. Mr Noppanat said the victim had cursed them, and they were drunk. Police charged Mr Noppanat with attempting to kill.