A Myanmar worker has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing two boys and distributing obscene video clips of the abuse in an online chat group.
Pol Lt Gen Trairong Phiewphan, chief of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB), said yesterday that investigators were tipped off about the sexual abuse of two boys in a members-only chat group which charged a fee of 250 baht per person to enter.
Pol Lt Gen Trairong said officers posed as customers to gather evidence in the group. They discovered many obscene clips of children being sexually abused. Members who wanted to watch the child sexual abuse live in a "secret" online chat group had to pay an additional 100 baht.
The live broadcasts lasted for over an hour.
A team led by Pol Col Runglert Kanthachan, superintendent of the CCIB's High-Tech Crime Division on child sex crime, was gathering more information and clues about the perpetrators and the victims, as well as the location where the abuse occurred.
The team found the two victims were stateless boys, aged 10 and 13, living in Chiang Mai's Mae Wang district.
The police were able to identify one of the abusers, who also ran the online chat group, as Jaitanu, 27, a Myanmar national who is employed as a menial worker in San Pa Tong district in this northern city.
A warrant was sought from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court on Wednesday for the man's arrest on charges of committing indecent acts and sexually violating a child under 13 years of age, as well as recording images and possessing pornographic material for sexual exploitation with intent to trade.
Jaitanu was arrested at a house in San Pa Tong district. Police seized a mobile phone with evidence of sexual abuse against many underage victims.
He said he earned around 10,000 baht a month from membership fees.