Line chats undermine 'bleach mum'

Line chats undermine 'bleach mum'

Suspect 'told friend boy is not her son'

Police show the arrest warrant to a woman accused of allegedly forcing her toddler to swallow bleach to make him look sick for an online advertisement selling her products. (Crime Suppression Division photo)
Police show the arrest warrant to a woman accused of allegedly forcing her toddler to swallow bleach to make him look sick for an online advertisement selling her products. (Crime Suppression Division photo)

Police have found more evidence to disprove a claim by a mother accused of forcing her two-year-old son to swallow bleach that the boy is her biological child, police said on Monday.

Along with this piece of evidence, DNA test results expected next week may lead to human trafficking charges being pressed against the mother as well, said Crime Suppression Division (CSD) chief Jirabhop Bhuridej said on Monday.

The new evidence is a Line application chat history between Nittha Wongwan, 29, the mother, and the biological mother of a four-year-old girl who was adopted by Ms Nittha before she fell ill with similar symptoms to the two year-old-boy, said Pol Maj Gen Jiraphop.

The girl had died while the boy was rescued and placed under the care of a shelter for children in Pathum Thani after he was treated at Thammasat University Hospital where doctors detected irregularities and alerted concerned authorities to the suspected child abuse.

In the chat, Ms Nittha, who was arrested last week, had revealed that she was not the biological mother of the boy, said Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop.

Ms Nittha has admitted to online fraud but denied a charge of attempted murder.

Pol Col Pathak Khwanna, chief of the CSD's subdivision 4, said investigators were piecing together the current evidence while waiting for the DNA test results.

A check into Ms Nittha's financial transaction history found more than 20 million baht circulating in her bank accounts, which contradicted her claimed financial difficulties and the way she lived, said Pol Col Pathak.

Investigators are continuing to track where the money came from and where it had been spent, he said.

Ms Nittha has been accused of deliberately making the boy ill so as to swindle donations from sympathetic good samaritans.

The police were also checking whether Ms Nittha had obtained a life insurance policy for the boy and the girl and if the answer is yes, that could be treated as a motive, said Pol Col Pathak.

Ms Nittha was in 2018 sentenced to three years in prison in a fraud case involving online products sales, he said citing a check into her criminal background.

Investigators have already questioned the real mother of the four-year-old girl she had adopted, he said.

The police are now searching for evidence to prove how the chemical found by the doctors in the body of the boy actually got into his body, said Pol Col Pathak, adding that a similar probe was being conducted into the case of the dead four-year-old girl.

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