KALASIN: A former folk music teacher has been arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old schoolgirl at the living quarters of vocational college personnel in Muang district.
Chaisit Sonsunan, 55, was nabbed at his wife’s living quarters in the compound of the college on Tuesday.
The former folk-music teacher was wanted on a court warrant issued by the Kalasin provincial court for raping a Mathayom Suksa 2 student, 13, at his wife’s official residence.
After being questioned, Mr Chaisit was charged with raping a girl aged below 15 and depriving her of parental care, said Pol Col Ratchaphol Sermsaran, superintendent at Muang police station. He was later taken to court for detention.
The arrest followed a complaint by the parents of the girl on June 10. The parents submitted medical tests showing traces of semen in the girl’s vagina.
According to the police investigation, the rape occurred on June 9 when the girl, who lived at a dormitory inside the compound of the college, phoned her parents living in another province, to pick her up as she was sick.
When the girl went down from her dormitory room at around 3pm that day, she met Mr Chaisit, who lived at his wife’s residence opposite the girl’s. As his wife’s residence also served as a food shop, he persuaded the girl to wait at his shop before luring her into his room, where he raped her. He also threatened her not to tell anyone as she would be expelled from the school.
When the parents arrived at 4.30pm on that day, they noticed their daughter looked depressed. The girl later told her parents that she had been raped. The parents immediately took her to the hospital for an examination, which found traces of rape.
Pol Maj Gen Montri Charanpong, chief of Kalasin police, said he has instructed police to handle the case carefully as the victim was a minor and oppose bail for the suspect.
An initial investigation found the suspect committed similar sexual abuse while he taught music at a well-known school in Khon Kaen in 2004. He was given a suspended jail term for one year for the sexual molestation.
He later moved to teach at another school in Maha Sarakham province, where he was accused of sexually abusing a girl. He later quit and moved to live with his wife, who worked as an official at the college in Kalasin, said police.