CHIANG MAI– The “Pen-Nueng Foundation” has worked with the Department of Children and Youth to file a report with the Lamphun Police, seeking to arrest a Chiang Mai man accused of molesting and videotaping his 8-year-old niece.
According to the police report, the case came to light after the suspect’s phone broke and was sent for repair, where a technician recovered the footage and was shocked by what he saw.
Pol Sub Lt Supot Nukat, investigation officer on duty at Muang Lamphun Police Station, told Thai Media that he received a report from Ms Rapeephan Chaiyaka, an officer from the Department of Children and Youth, who was contacted by the Pen-Nueng Foundation .
The report stated that a girl, referred to as Miss P (alias), aged about 8, living with her mother in a house in Pratu Pa Subdistrict, Muang Lamphun District, had been sexually abused and subjected to obscene acts.
The alleged offender is Mr Pakorn, aged 33, originally from Nong Han Subdistrict, San Sai District, Chiang Mai. He is the younger brother of the girl’s mother. Initial checks found that he is currently working in Mae Chaem District.
After the report was filed, investigators from Muang Lamphun Police, officers from Mae Chaem Police Station, and staff from the Pen-Nueng Foundation, led by Ton-Or, coordinated and travelled to Mae Chaem District in Chiang Mai.
Their goal was to track down and arrest Mr Pakorn so he could face criminal charges.
The case surfaced after Mr Pakorn took his mobile phone to a repair shop and asked the technician to recover lost data. When the technician restored the files and checked the images, he was stunned.
The phone contained video clips of Mr Pakorn sexually abusing and committing obscene acts against Miss P, his own biological niece. One of the video clips was about 13 minutes long. The phone technician then contacted staff at the Pen-Nueng Foundation and passed the images and information to them.
The foundation carried out an initial check and gathered basic facts. After that, they coordinated with the relevant authorities, travelled to meet the child, and took an initial statement from the 8-year-old girl.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) in Thailand is a serious and ongoing problem. Exact figures are hard to confirm because many cases are never reported. Stigma, fear, limited enforcement in some areas, and links with child sex tourism all make the numbers less clear.
Key facts and estimates
- Data from UNICEF, ECPAT, and the Thai government (2015 to 2023) suggest that about 10 to 20 percent of children in Thailand experience some form of sexual violence before age 18. Most reported cases involve relatives or people the child knows, not foreign offenders.
- Reports from the Thai Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (TICAC) and several NGOs show a sharp rise in online child sexual exploitation since 2019. This includes livestreamed abuse for money. Thailand ranks among the top 5 source countries for detected child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in data from Microsoft, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and Interpol.
- Child prostitution is still visible in some red-light areas in cities such as Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. Many of the children involved are Thai, while others come from nearby countries like Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. Most are between 12 and 17 years old, although cases involving younger children are also reported.
