No mercy for killer Nong Kaem
The court had no mercy yesterday for the former railway employee who raped and murdered 13-year-old girl Nong Kaem on the night train from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Bangkok in early July.
The death penalty was not commuted to life imprisonment, which is customary for an admission of guilt and showing remorse. According to the Prachuap Khiri Khan Provincial Court, the accused did not confess because he felt remorse, but because the evidence against him was so convincing that there was no point in denying it.
That evidence consisted of a cell phone and tablet stolen by the suspect, fingerprints on the window of the train carriage the girl slept in, and a DNA test of bloodstains on his boxer shorts, which matched the girl's DNA.
A witness also stated that the suspect had asked him to sell the tablet, but he had not done so; he turned it in to the police. And another witness stated that he bought the mobile phone.
In addition to the death penalty, the court also handed down prison sentences for rape (9 years), theft (5 years), concealment of a body (1 year) and drug use (XNUMX months). An accomplice who had been a lookout was sentenced to four years in prison. The lawyers for both, as well as the accomplice's family, are appealing.
The girl, a student at Satrinonthaburi High School in Nonthaburi, returned to Bangkok with her sisters on July 6. The railway employee, who had been taking drugs and drinking with colleagues, raped her while she was sleeping, killed her and threw the body out as the train passed through Prachuap Khiri Khan. It was found there on July 8.
The Railways (SRT) responded to the rape and murder by reserving one carriage for women on overnight trains. The SRT also promised to screen applicants and temporary staff more strictly from now on, and to regularly test staff for drug use.
(Source: Bangkok Post, October 1, 2014)
Earlier messages:
Death sentence after rape and murder in Thai train
Suspect in train rape already in court
Kaem's rapist received help from a colleague
Railway director Prapat fired on foot
Death penalty! The death penalty for killer Kaem
We are not the law in Thailand, so leave the legal punishment to Thai law.
Every individual in this world has his own law, for himself or herself.
At the request of Cor van Kampen:
Capital punishment in Thailand
Thailand is one of 40 countries in the world that still has the death penalty. As of mid-June 2012, the country had 726 persons sentenced to death: 337 for drug offenses and 389 for murder and other crimes.
The death penalty has not been carried out since 2009. Then 2 men were given a lethal injection, a method introduced in 2003. Before that, the prisoners were shot, the last time 11 people in 2002. During the lethal injection, three chemicals are injected at an interval of 5 minutes. This causes the muscles to relax and the lungs to collapse.
Cases ultimately leading to the death penalty usually take 3 years due to appeals.
According to the second National Human Rights Plan 2009-2013, the death penalty would be abolished, but no initiative has been taken on this point in the past 3 years. In recent years, the Philippines and Cambodia have abolished the death penalty in the region.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Spectrum, July 22, 2012)