Courtroom chat of accused killer and admirer goes viral
A prison in Khon Kaen province has launched an investigation into how a female defendant charged with killing and dismembering a karaoke girl was able to conduct Facebook chats with an admirer and even send him photos directly from her trial.
No communication devices are allowed in court but photos went viral on the Internet showing conversations between the accused, Priyanuch Nonwanchai, and a man, identified only as Chake and with the Facebook name GU NO GO.
Priyanuch told the man she was chatting directly from her court hearing in Khon Kaen and that she was happy he did not hate a killer like her.
When the man asked Priyanuch to show him photos of the venue, she did exactly that, sending him photos of her and two other defendants: Kawita Rachada and Jidarat Phromkhun, who were charged but on bail.
The photo, which were taken by Jidarat, showed her and Priyanuch in orange dresses normally worn by prison inmates.
Priyanuch told the man that at that very moment witnesses for the prosecution were giving evidence. The chats were done in Jidarat’s Facebook messenger app. The photo displayed was Jidarat but Priyanuch told the man that it was her.
It was not still clear who captured the chats and spread them across the Internet.
Priyanuch is accused of inviting the victim, Warisara Klingjui, into her car to talk about an overdue debt which led to an argument and a physical fight that escalated into the killing.
Other suspects were also in the car but Priyanuch was suspected of being in charge of cutting the body in a bid to fit the parts into buckets. The parts were then buried in a shallow grave but found by villagers a few days later.
Their gruesome murder made headlines for several weeks as police hunted those responsible.
Police gave daily briefings to the media about their hunt, which eventually led to Myanmar. Priyanuch and her co-accused surrendered to Myanmar police, who handed them over to their Thai colleagues in Chiang Rai province.
During their detention in the province, local police officers were seen taking selfies with the suspects, provoking criticism that they were being treated too leniently.
The case captured so much public interest that national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda presented them to the media in Bangkok, despite the fact that the murder had taken place in Khon Kaen.