Regional News
Thai Police Capture Bangkok Cabbie Who Abducted and Raped Brazilian Beauty Queen
The taxi driver identified as Kamkooncharoen Konchaturat was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Nonthaburi province
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BANGKOK – On Tuesday, a young Brazilian woman filed a complaint with local police in Suphan Buri, saying she had been raped by a taxi driver after she waved down his cab in front of Don Mueang airport on arrival from Malaysia about 1.30pm.
The former Brazilian beauty queen hailed the yellow-green taxi from Don Mueang Airport and asked him to take her to Thonglor, but the cab driver took detours, taking her to Nakhon Pathom, then Suphan Buri province.
He beat the woman, assaulted her and then abandoned her beside the road, where she was found by a local resident.
Police reported, Khamkhuncharoen Khonchaturas, 44, of Nakhon Ratchasima’s Sikhiu district, was apprehended while hiding out on Samakkhi Road in Nonthaburi.
Police initially pressed charges of rape, illegal detention, and theft with violence.
Khonchaturas was on Wednesday taken to the crrime scene, the eucalyptus plantation in Song Phi Nong district, and then to Suphan Buri provincial court, where the Brazilian victim identified him as the rapist.
Police said criminal records showed driver Khamkhuncharoen was involved in two previous rape cases, according to Daily News Online.
The first involves a 20-year-old Thai woman who was raped in Lat Lum Kaeo district of Pathum Thani on Sept 24, 2008. The second case involves a 25-year-old Myanmar woman who was raped on Kamphaeng Phet 6 Road in Thung Song Hong area, Bangkok on Jan 9, 2013, the report said.
Khaosod Online reported the driver had served a prison term for rape and was recently released.
