KALASIN: A police lieutenant is facing dismissal and possible criminal penalties after drunkenly asking a teenage girl if he could grope her private parts, according to his supervisor.
Pol Lt Gen Charoenwit Sriwanit, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 4, said on Tuesday that Pol Lt Uthit Onprasong, a deputy inspector at Sahatsakhan police station, confessed that he had been drunk on duty and sexually harassed the girl.
The offence is liable to both criminal and disciplinary punishment and if proven, he will be dismissed and could face a jail term of up to 10 years, the commissioner said.
He quoted Pol Lt Uthit, 56, as saying that he had been drinking at home on Monday morning when a colleague asked him to take over a duty shift at Sahatsakhan police station. At about 11am, a 15-year-old girl arrived with her younger sister to pay a fine for failing to wear a crash helmet while riding a motorcycle.
Pol Maj Gen Somnuek Mikwan, chief of Kalasin police, said interrogation and surveillance camera footage revealed that Pol Lt Uthit brought the 15-year-old to an upper-floor room, barred the door and asked to touch her private parts.
He said that Pol Lt Uthit was transferred to Kalasin police headquarters pending prosecution.