One of two suspects allegedly accused of engaging in the sex trade of minors and forcing them to sell narcotics in Rayong surrendered to police yesterday.
This follows reports that two teenagers had contacted a local Facebook page "Zoom Rayong" and said that they had been locked up in a house used as a brothel in tambon Phe, Muang district of Rayong province. The teens claim they were forced to work as prostitutes there and sell drugs to customers, among them police officers.
Euay, 16, revealed that she and her friend, 14, had escaped the house and filed a complaint with police from tambon Phe station on Nov 28. However, the case had not progressed. She then contacted the Facebook page and lawyer Paisarn Ruangrit for public attention and legal aid.
The teen confessed that she had worked as a prostitute before working for the accused, who are husband and wife, who ran the brothel and who invited her to stay in their house, where another three teenagers had been working as prostitutes.
Euay said that all of them had been forced to take illicit drugs, sell drugs and work as prostitutes.
She also said that the couples forced each of them to sleep with clients a few times a day. Even though the rate for having sex with them was 1,300 baht per time, the couples only gave them 300-400 baht per client. Some of the brothel visitors were police officers, Euay claimed.
Pol Col Preepahwat Chaiphetyothi, superintendent of Phe Police Station, said yesterday that police had found ecstasy during the female suspect's health examination. She has been charged with trafficking, child prostitution and drug use. Police had requested her pre-trial detention at the Rayong Provincial Court. Pol Col Preepahwat said they had not found evidence of police officers involved in child prostitution, as claimed by Euay.