Bangkok Post – Disability is no barrier, ruthless teenagers, mysterious murders

A heartless privateer

Police are searching for a couple who befriended a deaf, mute woman and brutally robbed her before dumping her on a beach in Pattaya.

33-year-old Chutifat or Eyre (surname withheld) sought help from passers-by after a harrowing few days when the tomboy who showed romantic interest in her turned out to be a money-hungry man.

When the pair were exposed as frauds, they attacked Eyre and robbed her of everything she owned.

Unfortunately for the suspects, their violent, abusive behavior was caught on camera, and the video was shared widely when her plight became known.

The video, filmed at an unidentified home on October 26, shows a man throwing a phone at Eyre, who sits cowering on the stairs.

She looks terrified as her supposed partner, named Nam (surname not given), and a man who turns out to be her unnamed husband, shout at her and beat her.

Eyre, speaking through a translator at the Muang Pattaya police station after she was found on the beach, said the pair demanded money and forced her to sell her Honda Wave motorcycle, collecting 30,500 baht.

They also took her disability card and 10,000 baht in vulnerable cash before dumping her on the beach.

Reports say police struggled for several hours to understand what happened as Eyre, who is also reported to have developmental issues, struggles to communicate.

The police were finally able to contact her worried friends and relatives through a messaging app. When they heard about what had happened, they left Samut Prakan and arrived in Pattaya around 3:30 am on October 28.

Her mother, Krayan Muenchan, 56, who was among those who came to pick her up, said Er started dating Nam three months ago. News reports said she was deaf and mute, like Eyre herself.

“She came to our home in Kanchanaburi to introduce herself. However, Eyre found out about a week ago that Nam actually has a husband and we haven’t heard from her for a few days,” Ms Cryan said.

“At first we assumed she was sulking, but we later heard from friends that Nam and her husband attacked her.” A friend sent them a video of Eyre being attacked.

Eyre reportedly threatened to take her own life. “We sent her money to keep her spirits up, but now I wonder if she was forced to file a claim,” she said.

“We started looking for Eyre before we heard from the police that she had been found in Pattaya.”

The air, she noticed, was covered with bruises on her face, head, body and both legs, evidence of the assaults she had suffered at the hands of Nam and her husband, identified by the media as a rescuer from Nonthaburi.

Mrs Cryan said the pair took everything they could get their hands on from Air’s, with a total loss of around 20,000 baht.

When Nam and her husband heard that Air had gone to the police, they arrived at the station with three trucks to pick her up.

However, Eyre looked so scared that the police, who still couldn’t understand what had happened, told her not to go. When the police started questioning the group, they fled.

Pattaya police are looking for the suspects.

Bored teenagers are shouting

Police in Nakhon Ratchasima are looking for the ringleader of a gang of idle teenagers who beat up a tramp because they “had nothing else to do”.

Local residents were so shocked by the brutal attacks, which were captured on CCTV, that they threatened to harm the two teenagers involved, who were apparently well-known in the area and had previously been caught stealing.

The attacks, which took place near an old cinema in Pak Chong district, left the victim, 60-year-old Kriangsak (surname withheld), seriously injured and in need of medical attention.

Teenagers attacked him twice, on October 25 and the following night.

On the first night, CCTV footage shows three teenagers returning on a motorbike. They grab a nearby broom and a metal rod and begin beating Kriangsak with them, alternating between kicking his head and body.

Two people came on the second night. One teenager was the lookout while the other attacked the beggar who was still lying there despite the unprovoked attack the previous night.

Local residents saw him injured on October 26 after the second attack and contacted the police, who sent Kriangsak to hospital.

He needed four stitches to his head, a broken rib and bruises all over his body. Doctors say he also has bleeding in his left lung, but is now out of danger.

A local shopkeeper who spoke to reporters said that Kriangsak is a beggar who sleeps in the area but poses no threat to anyone.

“He asks for some money early in the evening, buys a drink and sleeps,” she told reporters. “My older sister heard the attack. They beat him really hard,” she said.

Local residents feel sorry for him, so they give him small things. But when he has money, teenagers demand it.

“If he gives it to them, no problem, but if he doesn’t have it, they attack,” she added.

Two teenagers, aged 13 and 14, turned themselves in to police following the publicity surrounding the incident.

They said local residents, stunned by the senseless attack, which they witnessed on CCTV footage, threatened to harm them through massacre.

News anchors marveled at the irony of teenagers who thought nothing of attacking an innocent beggar but ran to the police for help when faced with the prospect of being hurt themselves.

The teenagers who came forward said that a third boy picked them up and took them to the place. “He said he had nothing to do, so he ordered us to start attacking the beggar,” they said.

Locals who spotted Kriangsak lying in a bloody heap after the second attack said the beggar told them the boys had asked for 60 baht. When he told them that he had nothing extra, they started beating him.

Police in Pak Chong said they broke up a fight among teenagers shortly before they heard reports of attacks in Kriangsak.

When they saw the CCTV footage, they recognized one of the teenagers as part of the group whose fight they had broken up earlier.

A check of their history shows that they have also been caught stealing before.

The boys admitted that they did not know Kriangsak and that the attack was random and unprovoked.

The police called the ringleader on the number the boys provided, but there was no answer. They will seek a warrant for his arrest, one of the reports said.

Another said further action would have to wait for the intervention of a multidisciplinary team because all three boys were minors.

Birthday tragedy

Police in Phattalung are looking for three suspects in the mysterious shooting death of a 19-year-old man on a road near his home.

19-year-old Sivakorn Hiokayev was shot in the chest, back, left arm and back of the head with a .38-caliber pistol in the Pa-Fayom district on the morning of October 28.

Police found no bullet casings but found four ya ba pills in his pocket.

His body was found on the road about 150 meters from his home.

His mother said that a few hours before he was shot, three young men on two motorbikes appeared, claiming to have run out of gas, and asking him for help.

More darkly, some reports suggest they may have appeared to “clear the air” over an argument or lure him to his death. He left the house with them, and 20 minutes later his mother heard gunshots.

“I knew it was a shooting, but I had no idea it was him,” she told reporters. Local residents reported the shooting to the village head, who contacted the police.

Surveillance cameras recorded the sounds of gunfire and two motorcycles that left the area, but did not witness the shooting itself.

Sivakorn, a handyman, had no history of drug involvement, said his mother, who was not named in the news report. Earlier that evening, he had gone to a friend’s house to help celebrate Sivacorn’s birthday.

He returned home shortly after 7pm before the trio turned up at the house around 2am.

Pa Fayom’s police summoned his family and relatives for questioning, including one of the three men who came to see him and his young girlfriend.

While drugs were one avenue of investigation, they thought it more likely that he died in an argument over a woman.

Late last week, it was reported that police had obtained warrants for the arrest of three motorcyclists. The case is ongoing.