Three men and a teenage boy were arrested and a fifth is being hunted by police for allegedly raping two underage sisters on Kratinglai Beach.
Somchai Yana, 22, Yodying Ongkham, 21, Witawat Throngjailan, 18, and a 16-year-old boy were taken into custody by Banglamung and Chonburi police Dec. 7, hours after they allegedly attacked the 17- and 14-year-old girls behind Baan Sukhawadee and dumped them on a dark soi in Naklua.
Found dazed and inebriated around 1 a.m. on Sukhumvit Soi 10 by resident Razen Chairath, 25, the girls initially said they were taken by a group of six men to the beach where they were forced to drink alcohol and then raped.
The young men, unsurprisingly, told a different story, one in which the underage girls allegedly had consensual sex after agreeing to join them on the beach for a party.
The four were taken to the crime scenes to reenact the crime later the same day.
Somchai said the older sister had a dead phone battery, so he took her to his work to get a charger and there had consensual relations before returning to the group at the beach to drink.
Somchai then said he left to pick up his girlfriend and left the girls in the custody of the others.
Police said Witawat confessed that he and fugitive 18-year-old Thanachai Kiewcha-oom invited the girls back to their room where they had sex.
They said neither Somchai nor Yodying assaulted the girls at the apartment. No mention was made of the 16-year-old’s involvement.
