Police on Thursday arrested a man who allegedly admitted to raping his 86-year-old grandmother in Lop Buri last Sunday.
The 23-year-old man, identified only as "Game", was apprehended on an arrest warrant issued by the Lop Buri court. The man confessed to raping his grandmother, police said.
The DNA collected from the victim's clothes matched that of the man, which led police to the perpetrator and allowed them to obtain an arrest warrant, officers said.
Police yesterday brought the man to his grandmother's house for a re-enactment of the crime.
More than 100 police and local officials were deployed to protect the man from attack by enraged villagers in the neighbourhood.
The man broke down and cried, begging his grandmother for forgiveness. He said he committed the act after a night of heavy drinking with his friends.
The rape occurred in tambon Ban Chi in Ban Mi district about 3am last Sunday.
The victim, whose name has not been disclosed, sustained a broken jaw and swollen face after the attack.
Her 58-year-old son, who lives nearby, told police he saw a suspect fleeing his mother's house wearing only a towel about 3am last Sunday. It is not clear if the son is Game's father.
He rushed to the house and found his mother had been attacked and raped. She was rushed to the hospital.
Health agencies said though she suffered after the incident, her physical and mental health is steadily improving.
Local authorities have since teamed up with soldiers to patrol the village at night to ensure safety and ease villagers' concerns.
Before the 23-year-old's arrest, several elderly women, aged 60-70, in the village lived in fear and suffered from high blood pressure as a result, according to public health officials.
However, the crime is unrelated to a serial rapist wanted for assaults on 10 women, nine of them elderly, in the Central Plains region, who is still at large, police said.
Little progress has been made in the search for the serial rapist since his last attack made headlines in late January.