10 arrested over sex with a minor forced into prostitution

Commander Pol Colonel Arun Wachirasrisukanya said that yesterday’s raids were followed further investigations after an earlier raid that rescued a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly forced into prostitution.
The commander revealed that the investigation had expanded, resulting in arrest warrants issued for 14 people who were allegedly clients. The suspects’ careers varied from government officials to police, businessmen and taxi-motorcyclists.
One of the suspects was a 58-year-old senior civil engineer working in the province.
At the earlier raid, police detained two suspects, Wichai Pensawat, 61, a retired teacher, and Paweena Thongchua, 20, the girl’s relative. 
Arun said a 58-year-old police lieutenant who was subject to an arrest warrant was on leave, and he hoped that the officer’s superiors would tell him to surrender.
Of the 10 suspects, some confessed that they had performed indecent acts with the girl but said they did not know that she was under 18. However, the commander said that when the suspects met the girl, it was impossible that they could not know that she was a minor. 
Local journalists reported that the suspects were taken to Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok, where their wives came to visit them. Some of them wept that their husbands cheated on them, and most of the suspects refused to meet their wives.