No good deed goes unrewarded
A young man who killed a sex pest persecuting his neighbour has been charged with premeditated murder.
Thaweep, or Bird
Muang police in Udon Thani last week nabbed Thaweep, or Bird, 20, for killing Thanakorn, 42, with a baseball bat as he was attempting to gain entry to his victim's place.
The incident took place at a rowhouse where Mr Thaweep and the woman he went to help, Thaworn, 50, are neighbours.
Thanakorn, the son of one of her ex co-workers, had turned up drunk and demanded she let him in for sex.
Thaworn, who had left her previous job at a factory to escape his predations, refused. However, the sex pest still managed to get his hand inside the window shutters and grab her hair.
"He bashed my head against the window so I called out for help," Thaworn told police.
The ruckus drew the attention of young Mr Thaweep and his parents, who emerged from their own place down the way to tell Thanakorn to leave.
Thanakorn ran after Mr Thaweep with a knife, forcing him to seek cover in a forest next door. However, when Mr Thaweep re-emerged later, he quietly returned to his mother's place and fetched the baseball bat.
He confronted Thanakorn, who was still outside Thaworn's place, and hit him over the head with it until he was prone. After that he called his mother to tell her what he had done.
Police turned up to find Thanakorn dead with his face and head beaten. Nearby they found a hook knife, which the sex pest had brought with him to threaten his victim, and the baseball bat.
Mr Thaweep, who admitted striking the man, was waiting for police.
Sasitorn, 30, the lad's stepmother, said she went out after the initial confrontation with Thanakorn when they told him to leave.
"I told my son not to go meddling in their affairs while I was away, but shortly after he called to say he'd hit the guy," she said.
"My son was protecting the woman, though I admit he has a short fuse," she said.
Mr Thaweep works at the local market, and rents a room with his wife. He said Thanakorn's noisy antics were disturbing his rest. "The noise was driving me mad so I went out and told him to leave. Later, I struck him with the bat," he said.
Thaworn said she worked at a piggery in Kumphawapi district four years ago where she knew Thanakorn as the son of a co-worker. "He forced me to sleep with him many times but I did not enjoy it. I had to succumb because he kept threatening me," she said.
Earlier this month, she switched jobs to a building supplies store in the municipality and moved to the rowhouse to get away from him, but on the night of the killing he followed her and demanded sex.
"I have a Lao husband, although he lives elsewhere. I told him I did not want to see him, but he would not listen," she said.
"I am relieved to be free of the nuisance, but Thaweep has now been charged for helping me," she said.
He saw into the future
A Chon Buri man took his wife's life after catching her talking on the phone to another man.
Theeraphan Banchang
Ko Chan police last week nabbed Theeraphan Banchang, 33, for slaying his wife and the mother of his two children with a mortar and a machete.
"I was angry to find my wife talking to another man on phone as she was making a meal in the kitchen, so I belted her with the mortar, then stabbed her with the machete," he told police.
"I dragged her outside and dumped her in the forest."
Police were called to a single-storey house where they found clothes lying in a heap at the rear and a long blood trail leading to the forest.
The victim, Usamanee Nanuan, 36, was face down, naked from waist up, and wearing a pair of shorts. A shirt was covering her head.
Mr Theeraphan, who initially fled the scene but was nabbed when he came back to collect some belongings, said it rode up as he was dragging out his wife's body.
A neighbour, Ekk (assumed name) was the first to find the body after Mr Theeraphan's elder brother called.
He had asked Ekk to check on his sister-in-law to see if she was dead.
"Theeraphan called and said he hit her until she lay motionless," the elder brother said.
However, when Ekk turned up he found the killer still standing outside the house.
"He forbade me from going inside, saying it was private property, so I called his elder brother," he told police.
"Theeraphan, meanwhile, fled the scene and when his elder brother arrived, we went searching for Usamanee. We found the blood trail leading to the body," he added.
Her son from a previous relationship, 18, said he had warned his mother about his foster father but she didn't listen.
The victim's elder sister (unnamed), said Mr Theerapan and Usamanee had been together eight years and sold oyster omelettes at the market.
They had two children, aged seven, and seven months.
He was keen on the occult, and kept an altar table and table of offerings to the spirits.
He also told people's fortunes and had told his wife hours before the slaying that she would die that day.
Police say they tested his urine for drugs, which turned up positive for speed. They charged him with premeditated murder and drugs offences.
Putting two and two together
A Nakhon Sawan man said he reached for a hoe to defend himself when a younger man attacked him in a dispute over his wife.
Takhli police last week nabbed Tikia Saesue, 79, for killing Tone, or Sompong, 51, a builder and long-time friend.
Sompong turned up on his motorcycle at the old man's place and pulled a knife when the pair started to argue.
Mr Tikia said he knew he would be no match for the younger man so grabbed a hoe and hit him.
"I hired his wife, Maew, a labourer, to help me put up a chicken coop but he misunderstood, thinking we were playing around," he said later.
Media reports said Maew, who was drunk when police turned up, had complained of feeling ill and Mr Tikia suggested she take a rest.
"Her husband, finding her in bed, jumped to conclusions," the old man said.
The house where Tikia, inset, struck his friend with the hoe.
Mr Tikia said he was shocked to be accused of playing around. The pair started to argue and when Sompong rushed at him with a knife, the old man hit him two or three times with the hoe.
He and Maew had been using the hoe to erect poles for the chicken coop.
Maew, who was drunk on white whisky, said she saw the men arguing but wasn't able to help in time.
Ple, the old man's daughter, said no one was at home at the time of the killing.
"I was aware my father had hired Maew to help. Dad knew the victim well. When Sompong was in hospital once, Dad made meals for him and took them into the hospital," she said.
Police said they would treat both sides fairly as they mull charges.
