Cops 'failed to act' over gang-rape

The father of an alleged gang-rape victim says police in this station refused to take his complain seriously and tried to bury the crime report. (Photo via Google Maps)
The father of an alleged gang-rape victim says police in this station refused to take his complain seriously and tried to bury the crime report. (Photo via Google Maps)

Police in Saraburi are facing a probe by the Crime Suppression Division into their alleged inaction following a complaint against five teenagers for allegedly gang raping an underage girl.

The officers on duty will be punished if they are found guilty and all the rape suspects will be arrested and interrogated, CSD subdivision 2 chief Arun Wachirasisukanya promised on Tuesday.

CSD investigators began the probe after the father of the 12-year-old victim posted on his Facebook page that his daughter did not receive fair treatment after allegedly being raped by the boys at a roadside shop in Saraburi's Muang district in the early hours of Dec 14.

Her father wrote he suspected the police wanted him to "drop the complaint" when they expressed their concerns over the future of the boys.

Reportedly, officers attached to the Muang Police Station in Saraburi claimed they could not detain the teen suspects because they were not caught in the act.

The officers told the victim she must be examined for evidence before they could handle the accusation and by experts from other agencies as required by laws governing cases involving underage victims.

Pol Col Arun admitted that police had not recorded the victim's complaint partly because they were in the process of gathering evidence and "waiting for talks between the two sides".

On the Facebook page of the victim's father, a man who claimed he is a member of a local administrative body in Saraburi, and a relative of the suspects, allegedly offered to pay 30,000 baht in compensation to his daughter.

The father said he was not part of the discussion between the boys' parents and local leaders over compensation as he was in Bangkok at the time. He only learned of the money issue later from a friend in a phone call.

The victim's father admitted he could not control his anger when he heard what had happened to his daughter and he rushed to Saraburi and met the suspects and their parents at the police station.

According to his post, he kicked one of the boys so severely that he passed out while another suspect suffered an eye injury. He also slapped the face of a father of one of the boys.

The victim's father also "trampled" on the local administrator for helping the teens escape punishment.

His actions caused the boys' parents to file a complaint against him.

The father said he could not accept what had happened to his daughter and she had suffered both physically and mentally from the ordeal.

His daughter had been pulled into a shop opposite Saraburi Vocational College in Muang district when she was walking alone on a footpath, he said.

Pol Col Arun said the five suspects will face charges if they committed the crime.

"If the victim believes she is being treated unfairly, she can lodge a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division against the alleged rapists.

"We are willing to handle the case. The investigation is not complicated and the alleged offenders are the boys. It's not surprising that people are interested after the publicity these allegationshave received online," he said.

Vocabulary

  • accusation: a statement that someone has done something wrong or illegal even though this has not been proved - ข้อกล่าวหา
  • compensation: money that someone receives because something bad has happened to them - เงินชดเชย
  • detain: to keep someone in a police station or prison and not allow them to leave - กักตัว ควบคุมตัวหรือฝากขัง
  • drop (verb): to stop doing something; to end an activity or programme - เลิก, ยกเลิก, หยุด
  • evidence: facts statements or objects that help to prove whether or not someone has committed a crime - หลักฐาน
  • ordeal: an extremely unpleasant experience, especially one that lasts for a long time - ประสบการณ์ที่แสนสาหัส
  • probe: an attempt to find out the truth about an issue, problem or accident, made by an official group (or by the media); an investigation - การตรวจสอบ  การสอบสวน
  • punish: to make somebody suffer because they have broken the law or done something wrong - ทำโทษ
  • rape: the crime of forcefully having sex with someone against their wish - การข่มขืน
  • severely: very seriously - อย่างรุนแรง
  • slap: a quick hit with the flat part of the hand - ตบ
  • trample: the put your feet down on someone or something in a heavy way that causes injury or damage -

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