Wirapol Sukphol, once known as a jet-setting monk famous for flying on private jets and toting designer bags, was sentenced to 16 more years in prison today for the rape of an underage girl over a period of nearly 2 years.
Wirapol, 39, was found guilty of having sex with a minor and depriving her of her parents based on the testimony of the victim, who’s now 32 years old. He also fathered a child by her, as proven by a DNA test.
The court found that Wirapol had, on multiple occasions, picked up the victim up from school in Si Saket province, took her away in his car and sexually assaulted her. The offenses occurred from January 2000 to mid-2001, when the girl was 13 to 14 at the time, Spring News reported.
Following allegations that he had misused funds donated by his followers to fund his religious projects, Wirapol gained media attention and fled to the U.S. in 2013. Then-viral footage of Wirapol showed him sitting in a private plane while wearing an orange robe and sunglasses.
The US extradited him to Thailand in July last year.
Two months ago, he was sentenced to 114 years in prison for public fraud, money-laundering and computer crime, but he would only serve 20 years for those charges because Thai law stipulates that as the maximum amount of time someone can be sentence to if found guilty of multiple counts of the same offense.
With the 16 additional years handed to him today, he’ll be imprisoned 36 years in total.
