Thai man arrested over 'gang rape of Cambodian woman at drinking session'
A Thai man was arrested over the alleged gang rape of a Cambodian woman at a drinking session with colleagues.
Boonart, 41, was drinking with his co-workers during a company gathering in Chonburi, eastern Thailand, when he invited the woman to come with him for another round of drinks on the morning of March 29.
The pair rode a motorcycle to a house in the Mueang district, where several of Boonart's male friends had been waiting to continue the drinking party.
But the alleged victim became heavily intoxicated and unable to sit up after downing more alcohol.
The suspects were said to have carried her to a second-floor bedroom to rest, before reportedly sexually assaulting her.
The woman said she screamed as the men undressed her, and allegedly took turns having sex with her despite her desperate attempts to resist.
After the alleged assault, those at the house reportedly tried to keep her from reporting the incident by giving her 800 baht to buy contraceptive pills and pleading with her not to press charges.
Once she had regained her composure, the woman secretly sent her location to a friend by mobile phone.
The friend came to collect her before she filed a complaint at the Don Hua Lo Police Station and underwent a medical examination at Chonburi Hospital.
Investigators tracked down and arrested the suspects, but found that Boonart was still hiding in Chonburi.
They spent months hunting the alleged rape suspect before detaining him on October 8.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Jatuporn Tikkaew of the Special Service Division said Boonart was charged with 'jointly committing rape by means of intimidation or physical force against a person unable to resist, in a manner constituting gang rape', punishable with 15 to 20 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 to 400,000 baht, or life imprisonment.
The police officer said: ‘During interrogation, the suspect confessed to all charges.
‘He admitted that he was the person named in the arrest warrant and had participated in the gang rape of the young woman with his friends after becoming heavily intoxicated and losing self-control.
‘We handed him over to the inquiry officer for legal proceedings.'
