A 25-year-old British woman who suspected that she had been raped in her motel room on the island of Koh Phangan apologized to the police yesterday and thanked them after their investigation revealed no forensic evidence or CCTV footage to indicate she had been assaulted.
Yesterday, Koh Phangan Police received a report from the UK Embassy in Bangkok that a tourist named Joanna Partridge woke up nude in her hotel room at the Coral Bungalows guesthouse on Haad Rin, the beach renowned for its full moon party.
The tourist had called her family in the UK, who then contacted the UK Embassy in Bangkok for help.
Partridge claims not to have any memory of the night prior, which led her to suspect that she had been assaulted by an unidentified British citizen that she had met during the the hotel’s pool party the night before, according to Matichon.
Police took Partridge to Koh Phangan Hospital, where she received a sexual assault forensic exam.
Medical examiners, however could not find any physical evidence abuse, reported Workpoint.
Her blood work also, reportedly, showed no evidence of narcotics.
After the examination, Partridge was brought into the police station station — along with a British Consul General and a translator — to give her testimony.
In search of the suspect, authorities checked CCTV footage, which showed Partridge entering her hotel room that night. Nobody else appears to have entered the room while she was inside.
After her suspicion of assault turned out to unsubstantiated, Partridge apologized to authorities and thanked them for their support before heading back to her bungalow.
Following an incident from last month in which Thai police firmly denied that a British teen was raped on Koh Tao, it is understandable why Partridge might have decided to contact the UK Embassy before the local authorities first.
While Partridge’s story, fortunately, turned out to be a misunderstanding, Koh Phangan is still the focus of international media attention after multiple foreign women spoke out about decades of sexual misconduct at a local yoga school named Agama Yoga.
Read more about the Agama Yoga in Coconuts Bangkok’s exclusive report here.
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Agama Yoga School closes amid flurry of sexual abuse allegations, more ex-students step forward
Being Broken: Years of sexual abuse alleged at Agama yoga school on Koh Phangan
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