Shocking footage shows a police officer arresting an alleged child rapist, having worn a bushy camouflage suit to blend into the background to reach him across a field
Thailand: Police officer camouflages himself to arrest suspected child rapist
A police officer disguised himself as a bush to arrest a suspected child rapist in Thailand.
The officer donned a camouflage suit as he crawled across a grassy field towards the rural home of alleged molester Bang Din, 20, in Chachoengsao province on December 16.
After reaching the property, the policeman revealed himself and detained the suspect who tried to hide behind furniture under the riverside stilt house. Footage shows the officer, still garbed in the shaggy moss-like camouflage, reading the list of charges against Bang Din as other policemen investigate the premises.
Police Major General Theeradech Thamsuthee, commander of the Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said: “The suspect was arrested on charges of human trafficking of a minor, deception, kidnapping, and sexual assault of a person under the age of 15. We have strong evidence against him.”
Cops deployed the military-style tactics to arrest Bang Din on Monday at his home – hidden behind trees and separated by a wide field from the road. He was wanted for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl in September but he had managed to elude authorities until this week.
Police said Bang Din had colluded with two other men, identified as Nattapong, 15, and Sharif Chankhao, 26, who befriended the girl on social media. They allegedly invited her ‘to eat snacks’ at a resort in Nakhon Nayok province, where Bang Din was said to have molested her on September 1.
The suspect reportedly confessed: “I tricked her that if she agreed, I would take her to buy some snacks. Then I had sex with her once before she said she wanted to go home. I was afraid that there would be a problem, so I rode my motorcycle to take her there. On the way, I met a group of people who seemed to be her guardians, so I dropped her off on the side of the road and sped away.”
Officials said one of the accomplices, Nattapong, had also been arrested. They were still searching for the last suspect, Sharif. Child sexual exploitation is a huge problem in Thailand despite government efforts to curb it through strict laws and enforcement initiatives. On December 5, police nabbed two Thai women for allegedly trafficking underage prostitutes to Chinese businessmen in Bangkok.
Nalatporn, 22, and Panida, 21, reportedly recruited dozens of vulnerable hill tribe girls from the north of the country and pushed them into selling sex to visitors from the Communist rogue state. Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) officers nabbed Nalatporn at a massage parlour in Suphanburi province where she worked, and detained Panida at a condominium in Bangkok.
