Bangkok, 14 September 2018 – The British Embassy in Bangkok has approved a request by Thai police to visit the United Kingdom to question a young woman who claimed to have been drugged, robbed and raped on Koh Tao island in Surat Thani in June.
Deputy tourist police chief Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakphan said the police team investigating the alleged rape will soon leave for the United Kingdom.
He said the police will verify the claim and conduct further investigation as clearly as possible and if the rape claim was eventually proved to be groundless, legal action would definitely be taken against the alleged rape victim.
The Thai police have yet to receive a report on the questioning of the British woman, which the British police had promised to send, he said.
The Thai police have been investigating the rape allegations claimed by the 19-year-old British tourist who said it occurred on Koh Tao island on June 25.
The British tourist woman reported to the Thai police in June that she was robbed on the island. But upon her return to the U.K., she told police there that she was also raped.
British media reported that she was drugged, robbed and raped on Koh Tao on June 25, and that the local police would not record her complaint of sexual assault.
The Thai police said she never filed such complaint about being raped and only complained that her belongings went missing. Investigators questioned her claim that she was drugged at a bar and then carried along the beach, where she was allegedly raped. They said evidence suggested it was unlikely because the tide was high along that stretch of beach at the time.
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