Deaf man held in child abduction

Deaf man held in child abduction

Suspect Thawatchai Kwanwang is taken to a police news conference on Saturday after his arrest on charges of kidnapping a four-year-old girl. (Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen)
Suspect Thawatchai Kwanwang is taken to a police news conference on Saturday after his arrest on charges of kidnapping a four-year-old girl. (Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen)

A 24-year-old deaf man has been arrested on charges of abducting a four-year-old Myanmar girl from a hospital in Kanchanaburi.

Details of the case emerged at a news conference on Saturday, at which Thawatchai Kwanwang, a native of Si Sawat district, was questioned with help from a sign-language interpreter.

The 24-year-old man confessed to having abducted the girl from Paholpolpayuhasena Hospital in Kanchanaburi on the night of May 14.

He entered the waiting area for patients' relatives and walked around before spotting the girl. As the relatives slept, he took the girl to a scrub forest behind a nearby shrine. He then took off her clothes and intended to sexually abuse her, but failed as she was too young, he said.

He then masturbated. As the girl woke up and cried, he consoled her until she fell asleep. He later rode his bicycle home, leaving the girl in the forest.

Pol Lt Gen Veerapong Chuenpakdee, chief of Provincial Police Region 7, said police apprehended the suspect at a house in Tha Muang district on Friday.

The arrest followed a complaint by the girl's mother that her daughter had disappeared from the hospital, where she and her three young children had gone to visit a sick relative.

CCTV footage from the hospital showed a man taking the girl from the waiting area. Her mother was asleep when the abduction took place.

The next morning, a local soldier found the girl walking naked from a forest, with injuries and severe bruising on her body. She was taken to a hospital for an examination.

Pol Maj Gen Kamonsanti Glanboot, the Kanchanaburi police chief, said police searched for the suspect for eight days before receiving a tip from a local resident.

He said Mr Thawatchai's deafness had no bearing on the case as he was mentally fit when committing the crime.

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