NAKHON PHANOM — A 40-year-old alcoholic has been arrested on a charge of repeatedly raping his 12-year-old daughter in this northeastern province, police said
The man was apprehended late Wednesday night at a house in That Phanom district following an overnight hunt.
The arrest came after the suspect's 70-year-old mother filed a complaint with police on Tuesday that her son, an alcoholic, had raped his 12-year-old daughter, Pol Col Teerat Thipnoppanant, chief of That Phanom police station, said.
A 12-year-old rape victim stays with her elderly grandmother in this house in Nakhon Phanom's That Phanom district. (Photo by Pattanapong Sripiachai)
The girl’s mother had abandoned the girl and her elder sister when they were younger, and her father had been working in Phuket until returning home last year.
The eldest sister, 17, had married and moved to stay with her husband's family.
The sexual abuse was exposed after the elderly woman noticed her granddaughter looked sad and depressed. She had asked the girl what was wrong, and learned that she had been raped by her father about twice a week for the past several months.
Police took the girl for a medical examination which confirmed she had been raped, and then obtained a court warrant for the father's arrest.
The man denied raping his daughter, claiming he only fondled her and masturbated himself when he got drunk. His daughter insisted he raped her.
He was detained in police custody pending legal action.
Relatives of the girl told police the suspect had frequently assaulted his elderly mother, who is partially blind, if she failed to give him her monthly elderly and disabled allowance cheques from the government, Thai media reported.
Khaosod Online said the suspect later confessed he had been raping his daughter for about one year. He wanted to apologise to his mother for sexually abusing his child.
Pol Col Sathien Kingcha, a senior investigation officer at That Phanom police station, said the girl lived in a dilapidated house with her grandmother, who was blind in one eye. Her father was now unemployed and addicted to alcohol. Donations woud be sought to build a house for the girl.
He said the family relied heavily on the government’s monthly allowance cheques.