Heartless caper
Chutiphat, or Air
Chutiphat, or Air (no surname given), 33, sought help from passersby after a horrendous few days in which a tomboy who showed interest in her romantically turned out to have a money-hungry husband.
When the pair were unmasked as frauds, they assaulted Air and robbed her of everything she owned.
Unhappily for the suspects, their violent, coercive behaviour was caught on camera, with the clip shared widely when her plight came to light.
The clip, taken at an unidentified home on Oct 26, shows the husband throwing a phone at Air as she sits cowering on the stairs.
She looks terrified as her supposed partner, identified as Nam (no surname given) and the man who emerged as her husband, no name given, shout at her and hit her.
Air, speaking through an interpreter at Muang Pattaya police station after she was found on the beach, said the couple demanded money and forced her to sell her Honda Wave motorcycle, raising 30,500 baht.
They also took her disability card, and 10,000 baht cash payout for vulnerable groups, before dumping her on the beach.
News reports say police battled for several hours to understand what happened, as Air, who reports said also has developmental problems, communicates with difficulty.
Police were finally able to contact her worried friends and relatives via a messenger app. They travelled from Samut Prakan when they heard what happened, arriving in Pattaya about 3.30am on Oct 28.
Her mother, Krajan Mueanchang, 56, among those who turned up to collect her, said Air started seeing Nam three months ago. News reports said she was deaf and non-verbal like Air herself.
“She came to our home in Kanchanaburi to introduce herself. However, about a week ago Air discovered that Nam in fact had a husband, and we didn’t hear from her for a few days,” Mrs Krajan said.
“We assumed at first she was sulking but later heard from friends that Nam and her husband had assaulted her.” A friend sent them the clip of Air being attacked.
Reports say Air threatened to take her own life. “We sent her money to keep her spirits up, but I wonder now if she was coerced into making the claims,” she said.
“We started looking for Air before hearing from police that she had been found in Pattaya.”
Air, she noticed, was covered in bruises to her face, head, body and both legs, evidence of the attacks she suffered at the hands of Nam and her husband, who news reports identified as a rescue worker from Nonthaburi.
Mrs Krajan said the pair took everything of Air’s which they could get their hands on, with total damages worth about 20,000 baht.
When Nam and her husband heard Air had gone to police, they turned up at the station accompanied by three heavies to pick her up.
However, Air looked so scared that police, still having trouble piecing together what happened, told her not to go. When police started questioning the group, they fled.
Pattaya police are looking for the suspects.
Bored teens lash out
 |
| The teens attack Kriangsak |
Police in Nakhon Ratchasima are looking for the ringleader behind a gang of idle teens who beat up a vagrant because they “had nothing else to do”.
The brutal attacks, caught on CCTV, so appalled locals that they threatened to harm two of the teens involved, who were evidently well-known in the neighbourhood and had been caught previously for theft.
The attacks, close to an old cinema in Pak Chong district, left the victim, Kriangsak (no surname given), 60, with serious injuries and needing hospital care.
The teens turned up to attack him twice, on Oct 25 and again the next night.
On the first night, CCTV images show three teens turning up on a motorcycle. They grab a broom and a metal rod from nearby and start striking Kriangsak with them, alternating those blows with kicks to his head and body.
 |
| Kriangsak |
Locals saw him lying injured on Oct 26 following the second attack and contacted police, who sent Kriangsak to hospital.
He needed four stitches in his head, had a broken rib, and bruising all over his body. Doctors say he also has bleeding in his left lung but is now out of danger.
A local shopkeeper who spoke to reporters said Kriangsak is a beggar who sleeps in the area but poses no threat to anyone.
“He asks for a bit of money in the early evening, buys a drink and sleeps it off,” she told reporters. “My elder sister heard the attack. They were really hitting him hard,” she said.
Locals feel sorry for him so give him spare change. However, when he has money, the teens demand it.
“If he gives it to them, no problem, but if he has none, they attack,” she added.
Two of the teens, aged 13 and 14, handed themselves in to police after publicity following the incident.
They said locals, appalled at the senseless attack they witnessed in the CCTV clip, had threatened to harm them by way of reprisal.
News presenters marvelled at the irony of teens who thought nothing of assaulting a harmless beggar but ran to police seeking help when confronted with the prospect they could be harmed themselves.
The teens who came forward said a third lad had picked them up and taken them to the spot. “He said he had nothing better to do, so ordered us to start attacking the beggar,” they said.
Locals who noticed Kriangsak lying in a bloody heap after the second attack said the beggar told them the boys asked for 60 baht. When he told them he had nothing to spare, they started hitting him.
Pak Chong police said they had broken up a fight among teens shortly before they heard word of the attacks on Kriangsak.
When they saw the CCTV images they recognised one of the teens as part of the group whose fight they had broken up earlier.
A check on their history shows they had also been caught previously for theft.
The boys admitted they did not know Kriangsak and the attack was random and unprovoked.
Police called the ringleader on a number supplied by the boys, but there was no answer. They would seek a warrant for his arrest, one report said.
Another said further action would have to await the intervention of a multi-disciplinary team, as all three of the boys are underage.
Birthday tragedy
 |
| The road where Siwakorn was killed. |
Police in Phatthalung are looking for three suspects behind the mystery shooting of a 19-year-old man slain on a road close to his home.
Siwakorn Khieokaew, 19, was shot with a .38 calibre handgun in the chest, back, left arm, and nape of the neck in Pa Phayom district early on Oct 28.
Police found no bullet shells but did find four ya ba pills in his pocket.
His body was found on a road about 150m from his home.
His mother said three young men turned up on two motorcycles in the hours before he was shot, claiming they had run out of petrol and asking him to help.
More darkly, some reports suggest they may have turned up to “clear the air” over a dispute, or lure him to his death. He left home with them and 20 min later, his mother heard the shots ring out.
“I knew it was gunfire, but didn’t suspect it was him,” she told reporters. Locals reported the shooting to the village head, who alerted police.
CCTV cameras captured the sound of the guns going off, and two motorcycles leaving the area, but did not witness the shooting itself.
Siwakorn, a general labourer, had no history of meddling with drugs, his mother, unnamed in news reports, said. He had been out earlier that evening to see a friend to help celebrate Siwakorn’s birthday.
He came back home shortly after 7pm before the trio turned up at the house about 2am.
Pa Phayom police called in his family and relatives for questioning, including one of the three men who turned up to see him, and a young woman friend.
While drugs were one avenue of inquiry, they thought it more likely that he died in a dispute over a woman.
News reports late last week said police had obtained warrants for the arrest of the three on the motorbikes. The case continues.
No comments:
Post a Comment