NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A teacher has been accused of sexually assaulting 22 children, most of whom attended the school where he worked, and posting videos of the acts on social media.
Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, assistant national police chief, said on Tuesday that this was one of four cases of sexual assault and human trafficking being tackled by the Thailand Internet Crime Against Children (TICAC) unit under Provincial Police Region 3. He drew particular attention to two cases.
In the first, the TICAC was supplied with information by the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, via the United States Department of Homeland Security, about a social media account using the name "Learning Thai language with Khru Art" which had been uploaded featuring a mass of pornographic material.
The information led to the arrest of Nantaphan Chanaphai, the teacher at the school in Nakhon Ratchasima, under a court warrant.
While searching his house, police found mobile phones and desktop computers allegedly loaded with tens of thousands of pornographic video clips. Of those, 639 featured the sexual abuse of children, allegedly recorded by the teacher on his phones. Most were students at a school where he had worked since 2020.
A total of 22 children were victims in this case, Pol Lt Gen Surachate said.
In the other case, Baramee Thongthip, 22, a student at a university in Nakhon Ratchasima, was arrested after a woman filed a police complaint against him.
The woman said the student had lured her 15-year-old son into having intercourse with him, recorded it and posted the video on the internet.
During the arrest, police examined his mobile phone and found it was full of pornographic material -- including 49 files of still pictures and 112 video files. Two of the clips involved the complainant's 15-year-old son.
Mr Baramee allegedly admitted to having posted messages online inviting people to have sex with him. He used a mobile phone to record their sexual activities and posted the videos online for a select group of about 1,500 members. The membership fee was 200-250 baht. Police examined his bank account and found about a million baht had been moved through it.