Molester's 37-year sentence upheld
Play
The Appeals Court yesterday upheld a 37-year prison sentence for a Dutch man convicted of sexually molesting a 12-year-old boy.
On July 16, 2009, Willem Gerard Knoppien, 54, was handed the 37-year jail term and his accomplice Thanes Bualuang, 35, got 26 years and eight months.
The two had been accused of taking the minor away from his parents, procuring him for molestation and abusing him on four occasions in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin district in March 2007.
Thanes lured the boy with a cleaning job to Knoppien’s house, where Knoppien sexually molested the boy on four days. Each time Knoppien paid Thanes Bt200 and the boy Bt120.
The Appeals Court agreed that the victim’s testimony was clear and Thanes’s confession to police carried weight, while Knoppien’s defence was not convincing.
