Wanchai Saengkao is presented to the Hua Hin Provincial Court on Sept. 30, 2014. Photo: Morning News
The Appeals Court today has upheld the death penalty imposed on a former railway employee who raped a 13-year-old girl and later threw her off the train in July 2014.
Wanchai ‘Game’ Saengkao, 23, was brought from Bang Kwang Prison in Bangkok to the Hua Hin Provincial Court in Prachuap Khiri Khan where the verdict from the Appeals Court was read out this morning.
In attendance were the victim’s relatives (except for her mother who was in hospital) and the family’s lawyer Wanchai Bunnag.
The court rejected Wanchai’s appeal for a lighter sentence. It argued that he only confessed to the crime due to the overwhelming evidence against him, and not out of any sense of remorse.
The death penalty was meted out by the Hua Hin Provincial Court in September last year.
The former railway employee was arrested in July, 2014, for raping a 13-year-old girl who was sleeping on a train en route to Bangkok from Nakhon Sri Thammarat.
After he violated her, Wanchai threw the unconscious girl out of the train while in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. He then searched her bag and took her iPhone which he later sold in Bangkok for THB1,800.
Wanchai was arrested by the police the morning after as he confessed to the crime.
He was found guilty and sentenced to death penalty for murder, raping a girl under 15, stealing her mobile phone, hiding her body and consuming methamphetamine.
The State Railway of Thailand has paid the victim’s family THB8.5 million in compensation, in addition to funeral costs, Bangkok Post reported.
Related:
Family of train rape-murder victim receives THB8.5M
Train rape-murder case sent to prosecutors
Why again, asks woman traumatized by 2001 rape on train
Train rapist was SRT employee, says he raped twice before
Autopsy: Teen died from impact after being raped, thrown from train
