Caught in the act
Sitthipong ‘Taen’ Kaewchingduang
Sitthipong “Taen” Kaewchingduang, 37, who goes by the alias Nak Rop (fighter), turned up at Nong Prue police station in Bang Lamung district eight days after his victims first complained.
After the case failed to make progress, the victims contacted a support group for crime victims in Bangkok, who further publicised their plight until Taen finally came forward.
Speaking at the station, Taen said he wanted to protest his innocence of the rape allegations, as he had been falsely accused of rape last year by an “old nemesis” but the case was finally overturned in his favour.
While he admitted attacking a teen boy and taking drugs during his latest exploits, he did not rape anyone, he insisted. “If I am game enough to do it, I have to be game enough to own up to it,” he added.
Taen, a tattoo-clad person of influence in Na Kluea sub-district, appears to act with impunity, judging by the gravity of his latest offending spree, and claims to know local police, his victims say. He is thought to have “many tens” of gullible teens under his control.
Taen, police say, has a long rap sheet spanning drugs, robbery, and weapons charges. In 2006 he was convicted of premeditated murder, for which he served 16 years before his release in February 2022. He is the younger brother of another local thug, Surachat “Tam Nak Rop”, killed by police in 2011 after he opened fire on them during a drugs bust.
Police at Nong Prue station promptly gave Taen a urine test and found drugs in his system.
However, his latest offending, of which drug use is just a part, also encompasses a brutal assault against a teen minion, which unhappily for Taen was filmed by witnesses at two locations, and an alleged rape of a woman he barely knew at a local motel.
The saga started on Sept 27 when Taen and his girlfriend, Hong (no surname given), fell off Taen’s motorcycle in a traffic accident. Taen was injured, but his girlfriend, apparently unhurt, wandered off down the road.
She asked two bystanders on a motorcycle, Man (no surname given), and his girlfriend, Nok (no surname given), both aged 20, to take her to a “safe place”.
Man said he dropped Hong off at a house in soi Thep Prasit in Nong Prue sub-district where she spoke briefly to a teen there.
Media reports referred to the teen, Mick (no surname given, and previously identified as Tang is news reports), 15, as one of Taen’s minions, albeit a reluctant one.
Mick and his mother, along with Man and his girlfriend Nok, were among those who later laid complaints with police about Taen.
Taen, who was trying to track down his girlfriend after the accident, later turned up at the house and accused Mick of trying to hide her. Mick said Hong indeed came by but took off again soon after.
Refusing to listen, Taen dragged the boy from his bed and kicked him repeatedly. A clip of the attack, taken by someone else in the room, was released to the media.
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| Mick, the teen victim of Taen’s assault. |
He brought hapless Nok along to Mick’s house, where she also bore witness to his assault.
Later, Taen took the pair with him on his bike as he renewed his search for Hong, at one point stopping in the Paekong shrine area. As they got off his bike, Taen once again assaulted Mick. A bystander filmed him kicking the boy in the head, and tossing about his unconscious body.
Nok was also witness to this attack but perhaps too scared to do anything, just stood there.
Mick later went before the media to show the injuries he sustained, including cuts to his left ankle, a swollen face, and bloody eyes and ears.
Later Taen took the pair to a resort where he allegedly tried to rape Nok, after sending Mick to the bathroom to prepare drug-taking gear.
Speaking after his surrender, Taen denied hurting Nok, saying he simply took the pair there to take drugs. Mick and Nok, however, say he tried to rape Nok out of frustration at not being able to find his girlfriend.
He freed Nok later the next morning. As for Mick, he dumped him by the side of the road, where a bystander came to his aid.
Taen was unable to find his girlfriend, whom media reports said may have decided to flee rather than put up with him any longer. Nong Prue police said they would pursue rape, assault and drugs cases against Taen.
Blinded by drugs
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| Drug suspect Aom. |
Muang police were called to a house in Chiang Yuen sub-district where they found Suwisa “Aom” Chompupeun, 32, in a distressed state.
She said a child she did not recognise entered her room and started smashing up the wardrobe and hitting her. She attacked the child in response and drove him from the house.
Her long-suffering family, who met police at the scene, say Ms Aom in fact mistook her own son, Focus, 13, for the intruder and that he merely went upstairs to retrieve his phone.
Ms Aom, they said, a hardened drug addict with a 10-year habit, had earlier taken ya ba and was hallucinating. She tried to throttle Focus but he managed to break free of her grasp.
As the boy fled downstairs, Ms Aom pursued him, throwing a piece of wood which hit his head, and charging at him with two large knives, the boy said.
Focus, who says he loves his mother dearly despite her drug-fuelled rages, was able to flee. He sought refuge at a nearby temple where he collapsed from his injuries, to his head, knee and elbow.
Aom’s mother, Ratee Phothirach, 51, took the boy to hospital to get his wounds patched up. She said Focus has the blood disorder thalassemia, and often needs transfusions. “I was worried the injuries could be serious if left unaddressed,” she said.
As they returned from the hospital, Ms Aom, still under the effects of the drug, pointed to the child. “This kid here...he did it. I don’t know what it is, it isn’t my son,” she told police.
This was too much for Ms Ratee’s Dad, Yom Phothirach, 78, who raised his hand as if to strike Ms Aom. “She doesn’t recognise anyone, talks nonsense, and flares up violently,” he grumbled. Fearing matters would escalate, police took Ms Aom upstairs as they searched her room, where they found half a tablet of ya ba.
Ms Ratee said Aom is hooked on drugs, doesn’t work, and leaves her with the burden of raising her three children: a daughter, aged 14, Focus, and a son, aged five. No word was to hand about the father.
“The day the digital money came out, she spent 1,000 baht on drugs,” Ms Ratee said. Ms Aom kept another 6,000 baht of the total, and she suspects it had since been spent on ya ba.
As police took Ms Aom to the station, locals who had gathered at the house started abusing her. “I have taken her to detox twice, each time for three months, but when she gets out she goes back to drugs,” Ms Ratee said. The family had built a lean-to in front of the house where they flee for safety when she flares up.
Police said they would give Ms Aom a urine test for drugs, and were willing to charge her for abuse if the faly wanted to take matters further.
‘Motorsai’ to the rescue
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| Kamphan Srihasuk |
Muang district and regional police nabbed Kamphan Srihasuk, 24, disguised as a delivery worker and wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet and gloves when he stormed the store in Tha Sai district.
He jumped the counter of a gold shop at Tesco Lotus Mahachai and scooped up 84 necklaces worth 205 baht weight in gold. He threw them in his bag and ran out of the store.
As he was fleeing on his motorcycle, a “motorsai” guy standing nearby realised what was happening, got on his own bike and charged at him. He knocked the thief off his bike.
“The thief ran off on foot but one of the guys kicked him into the canal, and when he emerged we held him until police arrived,” said the motorcycle taxi hero, unnamed in news reports.
Police retrieved the gold and also found a pocket knife in his bag, plus a fake gun and two large firecrackers. His motorcycle had been spray-painted white, and the registration plate removed. Mr Kamphan, who police say made little sense under questioning, was tight-lipped about what motivated him. Police charged him with attempted theft.
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