No apprenticeship needed
Criminals start leaving their mark early these days, as a young miscreant with a tattoo of an exploding love heart on his chest could tell you.
Metropolitan Police nabbed Atsada, or "Dan Hua Jai Rabert" (Dan with the exploding heart), 19, no surname provided, after his former girlfriend, Bee (assumed name), 17, complained about his conduct.
She told Bang Khun Thian police that Atsada had posted clips on the internet of them having sex after their relationship went sour.
Police say Atsada would often rape or molest his conquests, film them having sex, and threaten to post the clips when he didn't get his way.
When they set out looking for him, they suspected the case concerning Bee would not be a one-off, and so it was. When police nabbed Atsada in soi Charan Sanitwong 85, Bang Phlat, after a brief pursuit, they found he had three outstanding assault and theft cases against him.
Worse, when the police searched his home they found his new girlfriend, a 14-year-old girl, in residence.
He had persuaded the underage girl to stay with him over Songkran, despite desperate attempts by her family to contact her.
Her anguished family had made almost 100 missed calls to her phone since she fled home to live with him. Atsada told the girl to tell her parents that she was staying with a friend, but forbade her from answering the phone.
Media reports say that, far from welcoming the arrival of police, the youngster was quick to defend her new boyfriend. She alone was responsible for whatever wrongs he had done, she said.
Police say Atsada had taken many clips of them having sex, and had been in contact with potential buyers. After finding the girl, police called her parents to put their minds at ease.
Atsada, who is happy to admit to his offending, will be charged with abducting a child for the purpose of performing an act of indecency, and Computer Crimes Act charges.
Bee, meanwhile, told police she started seeing Atsada in February last year. They were together nine months before Bee caught him being unfaithful.
When Bee found out, she asked to leave, but Atsada, who claimed he still loved her, said he would post the sex clips if she went ahead. When that failed to change Bee's mind, he posted the clips on her Facebook, humiliating her in front of friends.
Bee's family took her to lay a police complaint, but Atsada kept taunting her, saying the threat of legal action did not scare him.
"My uncle is a policeman, and my elder brother is a soldier. The most that I will wear is a fine," he boasted, while admitting to police later that none of that was true.
Atsada, while repentant, said he wasn't interested in making up with Bee, as he was taken with his new love, the 14-year-old. "I am much happier with the new girl, so I forgot about the old one [Bee]," he said.
As for the three outstanding cases against him, he now can add to those the ones concerning Bee and the underage girl. At the end of March this year, news reports said, he stabbed a teen on Memorial Bridge. In the middle of last month he beat up a guy called Tu in Ekkachai soi 8, and at the end of last month, he stole sex stimulants from two convenience stores on Phra Ram II.
And as for the racy nickname, he derives it from a tattoo on his chest of an exploding love heart. He pulled up his shirt at the police station to show the artwork to curious officers.
Tha tattoo wasn't finished, however, as the tattoo artist was nabbed by police in Phuket before he could complete the job, he said.
Police sent him to Bang Khun Thian police for further action.
Sex positions and all that
A Kamphaeng Phet teen has gone to police after the violent partner of a woman friend beat her up in a row over a tattoo artist.
Vee with the bruise on her chin.
Vee (no surname provided), 18, complained to Muang police about "A" (no further details provided), who she said assaulted her at her friend's home.
A, she said, kicked her in the chin, beat her chest, and hit her with a spatula. Vee went before the media with big bruises on her chin.
She said A, in a fit of jealous rage, also attacked his girlfriend's mother, when she tried to step into the row. However, he spared his girlfriend herself, even though she was the real object of his anger.
Vee said A accused her of taking his girlfriend, Mot (no surname provided) to see a tattoo artist for sly sex.
Vee denied anything happened at the tattoo artist's, but A would not believe her, so hit her to show his displeasure, and also struck Mot's mother.
According to what Vee told police, Mot had asked her three days before the April 28 attack if she wanted to accompany her as a friend on a visit to see a tattoo artist in tambon Sa Kaeo.
She had visited the tattoo artist, identified only as Pod in news reports, several times before. She agreed and the visit went as normal.
On the day of the attack, Mot called her in tears and asked her to go and see her at her family home.
She found Mot and A there, who claimed to have evidence that his girlfriend was unfaithful.
He claimed that Pod sent him chat messages taunting him about his sex exploits with Mot, including detail about their supposed sex positions. "If nothing happened, how come he sent me that message?" asked an outraged A.
Vee said that on top of the assault, A also detained her at the house overnight (she escaped the following morning), and forced her to take half a ya ba pill.
Meanwhile, Amarin TV spoke to Pod, who denied sending the message to A or having sex with Vee.
He said he and A had been friends for more than 20 years. He knew his girlfriend, Vee, but not intimately.
However, he was not to be spared A's wrath either. He said Mot contacted him following her visit claiming she had argued with her mother and asking him to come around.
He went to see her as a concerned friend, only to find A there as well. He slashed him in the left rib cage with a cleaver, leaving a large scar. Pod, who has yet to lay a police complaint, said he was not sure who set him up: Vee, or A. Police are looking for him to pursue Vee's complaint.
Wilting in the sun
Tempers frayed in Buri Ram amid the summer heat in a potentially deadly row over a water tank.
The water bottle that Suthon assumed his uncle and aunt had taken.
Prakhon Chai police were called to a farm after an angry occupant, Suthon (no surname provided), 34, threatened his relatives with a shotgun.
Suthon accused his uncle and aunt of taking a water bottle (the five gallon plastic bottles which supply office water coolers) from his farm hut, where he usually stays alone.
His tank had disappeared and when he spotted a similar bottle at their hut assumed they had taken it.
When they denied it, he smashed the bottle, leading to an argument with his uncle, who pulled out a knife. Suthon brought out his gun in response and threatened to wipe them all out.
When a relative later complained to police, he took his uncle's motorbike and fled into the forest.
Sai Bua, 61, who alerted the police, said she was in her hut with her husband and four grandchildren when Suthon appeared.
When the row over the water bottle heated up and Suthon threatened to shoot the hut's occupants, everyone fled, she said.
Police find a long-barrelled shotgun in a barn.
Mau, 71, the suspect's mother, said her son tends to the buffalos and is a hot head. He and his uncle whom he accused of taking the bottle argue often, she said.
Searching the property after the complaint, police, the village kamnan and assistant village head found two short-barrelled shotguns under a tree, and one long-barrelled shotgun in a barn.
News reports say they also found a knife, and a ganja pipe which they suspect belonged to the suspect.
Police used a loud hailer for 30 minutes to try to coax the suspect out of the forest, with no success, as he fled into another village.
No further word was to hand on his fate.
