PATTAYA, Thailand – The Thai police have clarified the claim of a German suspect who said he paid 1 million baht to the police to facilitate his escape from a child sex case in Pattaya. The suspect is accused of buying sexual services from a girl under 15 years old and is facing the Thai judicial process. However, he was granted bail by the court and allowed to leave the country. The suspect told the German media that he paid 1 million baht to the police, but he used it as bail in court, with 200,000 baht as court bail and another 500,000 baht as travel bail to return home. The remaining 300,000 baht was for legal expenses.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Surachet Hakparn, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police’s Human Trafficking Suppression Center, said that the police are investigating the truth of the suspect’s claim and whether there was any money paid to the police. He said that a senior police officer who did not follow the regulations and helped the suspect to escape has been disciplined and is under a disciplinary investigation.
Pol.Lt.Gen.Surachet also said that the police are coordinating with the German Embassy and the German police to extradite the suspect and bring him back to face prosecution in Thailand. He said that the police will also issue a red notice to arrest another foreign suspect, a U.S. national, who is involved in the same case. He said that the police will not let anyone exploit children in Thailand and will cooperate with the international agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The case involves four suspects, one Thai woman and her English husband, who owned a bar that provided services with underage victims, and two foreign customers, the German and the U.S. nationals, who purchased services from the minors. The police raided the bar in September 2023 and arrested the suspects. The court granted bail to the foreign suspects and allowed them to travel abroad. The Thai woman and the English husband are still undergoing prosecution in Thailand.
