Gen Prawit: Brit teen filed theft complaint, not rape
GEN Prawit Wongsuwan, deputy prime minister and defense minister, today (August 27, 2018) asked what the authorities were to do about a British teenager who claimed that she was drugged and raped at Koh Tao’s Sai Ri beach as police said she had only filed a complaint about theft and not rape, the Thai-language daily Matichon reported.
“I want to ask what do you want us to do? Police have already explained, so what do you want me to say?” he asked.
As to whether there are any influential people on Koh Tao, Gen Prawit said those with influence had already been wiped out, and confirmed there are none such people left there.
Meanwhile Pol Lt-Gen Apichart Boonsiroj, head of Surat Thani police, flew to Koh Tao by helicopter at 8.30 a.m. this morning to follow up the 19-year-old British teenager’s claim that she was drugged and raped on June 26, 2018.
She had said that the next day she went to report to Koh Phangan police station, but they did not register anything about the rape only that she lost an iPhone 7 mobile phone, 3,000 baht and 4 debit cards.
The owner of the hostel where the teenager stayed told Pol Lt-Gen Apichart that she checked in on June 21 and left on June 27.
He added that she came with 4 males friends and they all went out together.
On June 25 he had arranged to go and look at the sky with them, but they left earlier and went to drink at the Fishbowl Beach Bar. However when he got there, he did not see them.
He added that the teenager drank every night and returned at 2 to 3 a.m. in the morning.
He was worried about her, and was relieved to see that she had returned the next morning. However after she returned to UK, her friend, Martin, contacted him and asked him to help liaise with the police to take legal action because she had been raped.
Pol Lt-Gen Apichart said questioning revealed that the teenager was not at the bar as she had claimed, but had bought drinks and was drinking at the beach near the bar.
However, she did meet and talk to an Asian man at the Fishbowl bar, with her claim being that when she regained consciousness she had been raped on the beach.
Pol Lt-Gen Apichart said he talked to all the business operators on this beach, and they said their CCTVs were functioning and had not broken down.
There are 7 security cameras on the beach, but they cannot be checked because they have a memory of 7 days and the complaint filed after 7 days, he added
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Top: Dusk at Koh Tao’s Sai Ri Beach. Photo: Jeffery Wong (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
In-text: Sunset at Sai Ri beach. Photo: David Corcoran (CC-BY-SA-2.0)
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