Suspect arrested in girl’s trafficking and prostitution case

Tossapol, 24, was apprehended in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district on Wednesday, division chief Pol Maj-General Kornchai Klaikleung told reporters. 

The case stemmed from early March 2014 when Songkhla karaoke bar operators Sunee and Pisutchai Sodaros visited Laos and allegedly lured a girl identified only as “Noi”, aged 12 or 13, to Thailand with the promise of a waitressing job paying Bt9,000 per month. 

Sunee’s son Tossapol allegedly picked up the girl at Mor Chit station and brought her to the bar where she was forced into the sex trade after Sunee claimed she had paid the girl’s parents Bt20,000, Kornchai said. 

The girl was allegedly forced to have sex and threatened with beatings and that her parents would be killed. 

After learning that she was pregnant, Noi escaped from the bar and was apprehended by Nong Khai railway police while trying to return to Laos. 

She was identified as a human trafficking victim and housed at a Nakhon Ratchasima shelter, where she gave birth to the child.

Police apprehended the trafficking suspects, but Tossapol claimed he thought the girl was meant to work as a dishwasher at the bar and denied knowledge of human trafficking or prostitution. In a separate case, Kornchai said police have detained Kongkita Piansawaengboon and his alleged Myanmar accomplices – a woman identified as “An” and two men “Bobo” and “Kamen” – in Pattani’s Muang district since July 12. The Myanmar Embassy in Thailand has urged police to take action against the suspects who are accused of luring six Myanmar nationals to work on a fishing boat. 

The six Myanmar workers were among 17 fishing boat crewmembers whom police apprehended recently. The six were allegedly lured to Thailand with the promise of jobs in Bangkok and Ratchaburi paying Bt8,500 per month but were then forced to work on the fishing boat.