After abducted at age 7 into a life of literal torture and slavery by a Thai couple, a Karen girl won a landmark judgment in court today against her fugitive captors.
The Kampaeng Phet provincial court ruled they must pay THB4.6 million to 13-year-old Air, an ethnic Karen Burmese girl who escaped her abusers in January of last year.
“The couple is still at large, but lawyers will investigate all of the employers’ properties to compensate her,” Preeda Tongchumnum of the Human Rights and Development Foundation told Irrawaddy’s Nyein Nyein. “She cannot make a 100% recovery, but the doctor will help her to move her body like any other person.”
The couple fled after inexplicably being released on bail after Air’s escape, and officials in Thailand have yet to file a criminal complaint.
For five years, Air sleeped in a dog kennel and the couple, Nathee Taengorn, 36, and Rattanakorn Piyavoratharm, 34, would often pour boiling water all over her body, which is now covered in disfiguring scars. She is no longer capable of reproduction, doctors concluded.
She said that after escaping once, she went to police for help. They returned her to her captors.
Here’s video from an original Channel 5 news report:
Photo: Channel 5
