SURAT THANI: A 30-year-old woman has admitted she made up a story that an 18-year-old woman touched her with a substance that rendered her unconscious and then stole her baby boy. The confession came after the accused woman produced the infant's birth certificate, identifying her as the mother.
The matter is not concluded for police, however, who plan to file charges against both women: the 30-year-old for filing a false police complaint, and the 18-year-old -- the actual mother -- for alleged human trafficking offences stemming from a message she posted online asking people to support her new-born baby. It appeared that the 30-year-old met the actual mother after responding to one of the messages.
Circumstances of the bizarre case became clearer on Monday night, when Ms Sasithorn Choojit, of Yala’s Betong district, admitted the baby was not hers. She told police that she had suffered a miscarriage, and fearing that her husband would be upset, she made a deal with the accused young woman to adopt her baby boy, Thai media reported.
The 30-year-old Yala woman earlier filed a complaint with local police in Surat Thani province that a young woman had allegedly stolen her one-month-old baby boy while she parked her car along a road opposite Makro store in Surat Thani’s Muang district on Monday afternoon. The woman, she said, had used a substance to render her unconscious.
The alleged baby abduction took a new twist after the accused woman, identified later as Ing-orn Klinchuen, 18, of Trang province, turned herself in to police on Monday night. Officials from Surat Thai’s child and family welfare office were present during the questioning.
Ms Ing-orn insisted the baby was her child. She dismissed the story she had rendered Ms Sasithorn unconscious and stolen her baby as untrue.
The 18-year-old woman said Ms Sasithorn made an appointment with her in Surat Thani to take her son back to Trang province. She showed the baby’s birth certificate and conversations she'd had with Ms Sasithorn on the LINE chat application as evidence.
Pol Col Sirichai Songwasi, superintendent of Muang police station, said Surat Thani police chief Apichart Boonsriroj had ordered the DNA testing of five people, the two couples and the baby.
“Police will closely work with social development and human security officials to investigate whether Ms Ing-orn’s message on her Facebook to ask for people to take care of her baby is tantamount to human trafficking offences or not. Ms Sasithorn will face a charge of filing a false complaint,’’ said Pol Col Wiroon.
Ms Ing-orn Klinchuen, 18, of Trang province, turned herself in to police at Muang police station in Sarat Thani province on Monday night. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)