Two of the 5 are police sons, 11 criminal cases in total
PUBLISHED : 23 Jan 2024 at 17:26
Police will lay a folio of charges in 11 criminal cases against the young teen hoodlums accused of the murder of a mentally unstable woman, also alleging other rapes and assaults.
Two of the five accused juveniles, aged 13-16 years, are the sons of local police officers.
Sa Kaeo police chief Pol Maj Gen Ormsin Boonyanuson said at Aranyaprathet police station on Tuesday that detectives reported that the five boys were now suspects in 11 criminal cases.
They include a 14-year-old boy suspected in three cases of murder and rape.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn said police would press charges in all the cases this Friday. Adults were also involved in some cases.
The alleged offences included rape, murder, molestation and assault, he said.
The exposure of the youth gang’s depredations in Sa Kaeo province had prompted the launch of a police campaign against young criminals nationwide, Pol Gen Surachate said.
The battered body of a mentally unstable woman, Buaphan Tansu, was found in a pond in Aranyaprathet district on Jan 12. Initially, her 54-year-old husband Panya Khongsaenkham confessed to the crime. He later reversed his story, saying he was physically coerced by police into making the confession.
It was reported that the coercion included being restrained, a bag placed over his head and being left shirtless in a room with the air-conditioner turned down low.
CCTV footage uncovered and made public by a reporter showed five boys had attacked the victim in the early morning of Jan 12. They first harrassed the woman, who was drinking near a convenience store. She became annoyed and threw a bottle at one of the boys.
In response, the youths assaulted her and then took her away on one of their motorcycles to the pond where her body was found.
She fell off repeatedly on the way. Once at the pond they allegedly drowned her.