The Appeal Court on Tuesday sentenced a serial child rapist to life in prison for sexually assaulting and killing a four-year-old girl in Loei province three years ago.
The court found that on Feb 5, 2013, the 35-year-old man known alternately as "Nui", "Ting Tang" and "Khundej" had lured the girl away from her grandfather at a Red Cross fair in Muang Loei district by telling her that he would buy her sweets. He then raped the girl and strangled her in a roadside forest. He also taped the girl's head, mouth and neck.
The Appeal Court's decision was based on the defendant's detailed confession and evidence from the victim's skeleton, clothes and slippers.
In July, the Court of First Instance commuted his sentence from death to life in prison for his confession.
The defendant was brought to the Criminal Court in Bangkok from Bangkok Remand Prison where he has been held throughout the prosecution process. None of the girl's relatives appeared.
According to police, Nui grew up in an orphanage and a couple adopted him at age seven. He lived with them in Puai Noi district of Khon Kaen province. His adoptive parents died when he was 15 and he went to live with their relatives in the same district.
Nui was never educated. He had neither an identification card nor a surname. He worked as a labourer at construction sites and fairs in various provinces.
His first victim was a seven-year-old girl who went to a temple fair alone in Puai Noi on Jan 18, 2008.
He tried unsuccessfully to rape and strangle her, but the girl survived and identified him following his arrest. He served three years and eight months in prison in Phon district of Khon Kaen and was released on Aug 23, 2012.
After his release, Nui returned to his former village, but locals rejected him for fear he would prey on other children.
He told police he had attacked about 10 children and killed four of them.
In March 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl he found alone in her parents' pickup truck near the Bearing BTS train station in Bang Na district of Bangkok in December 2013.
In November, he received another life sentence for sodomising and killing a seven-year-old boy he lured from a temple fair on Phu Pha Sing mountain in Wang Saphung district of Loei on in November 2013.