Prinn charged in three more sexual misconduct cases
Former Democrat Party deputy leader Prinn Pantichpakdi reported to Lumpini Police Station on Wednesday to acknowledge another sexual harassment charge and two more rape charges, raising to 11 the total sexual misconduct cases against him so far.
Police took him to the South Bangkok Criminal Court at 12pm to seek the court’s approval for his detention pending more investigation.
Prinn was escorted by police to a van at the rear to avoid an army of reporters waiting in front of the police station. He appeared tense and ran towards the van without speaking to reporters. Prinn denied all the charges.
Since early April, when prominent lawyer Sittha Biabungkerd publicised sexual misconduct allegations against Prinn, more than a dozen women and teenage girls have accused the politician of either sexually harassing or raping them. Prinn denies the allegations. He has quit all his posts in the Democrat Party to fight the cases.
Pol Maj-General Trairong Phiewphan, the deputy Metropolitan Police commissioner-general in charge of investigating the cases, said Prinn was charged with molesting a woman in one case and raping two other women in two other cases.
Trairong said the station was in charge of nine cases and it has charged Prinn in five other cases and one of the cases has been wrapped up and forwarded to public prosecutors. The station is still investigating another case before formally charging him. Prinn had earlier been charged by the Huay Kwang Police Station in one case and by the provincial police in two other cases.
In one of three latest cases against Prinn on Wednesday, he was charged with molesting a woman with his hand in 2016. The woman filed a complaint with Lumpini police on April 18.
In another case, a woman alleged that Prinn had drugged her and raped her at a Bangkok hotel, also in 2016, after she met him to consult him on a business operation.
She alleged that Prinn encouraged her to drink alcohol so that the talk would “go smoothly”. She became dazed after consuming the drink and was allegedly raped. She woke up the following day beside a security booth of the hotel, she alleged. She too filed the complaint on April 18.
In the third case, a 31-year-old woman told police that she had met Prinn by chance while she was applying for a job.
She said she was invited to drink with him and he tried to molest her. Later on July 20 2015, Prinn allegedly called her for a business talk to a hotel. She alleged that Prinn did not turn up and called her to meet him at a condominium.
She said she went up to the condo with a woman so she felt safe. But she said she did not know when the woman left and Prinn allegedly closed the door and raped her.
