Police in Samut Sakhon, an adjacent province to Bangkok, have obtained an arrest warrant for the man who allegedly assaulted his 11-year-old autistic stepdaughter before handing the child off to a taxi driver while she was still unconscious on Tuesday night.
40-year-old Chaiyuth Kongchareon is now wanted on charges of taking a child under 15 from a guardian for sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a child under the age of 15, physical assault, and depriving a person of their liberty.
On Tuesday night, taxi driver Sommai Wadduangdee, 58, told police that while he was stopped at a red light on Setthakit Road, a motorcyclist, later identified as the victim’s stepfather, knocked on his window and asked him to drive a “sick child” to the hospital.
Sommai said the motorcyclist claimed that he didn’t know the child and had randomly found the victim lying unconscious on the roadside, agreeing to meet him at the hospital. However, the stepfather never turned up and has since disappeared.
The girl’s grandmother, identified only as Boontham, said the suspect came to her house in Angthong province on Monday morning to pick up the child and she gave him directions to her school.
Boontham later told police the girl has autism, reported Sanook.
Chaiyuth was supposed to take the 11 year old to see her ill mother, who is currently in hospital, but instead drove her to Samut Sakhon province — where he usually lives with the girl’s mother and where the victim was found.
The grandmother said no one could reach Chaiyuth after he took the girl on Monday morning. She had been looking for her granddaughter before receiving the horrific call from the police Tuesday night that the child had been attacked, according to Khaosod.
Dr. Chokechai Leetochawalit, director of Krathumban Hospital, said that the girl’s condition is stable, but she remains in intensive care.
Editor’s Note: New information emerged that the victim is 11 years old. The previous report identified her age as 10 years old.
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