A defrocked monk in Buri Ram says a young woman presented him with a crab dish laced with a sex stimulant which led to the pair having sex.
Kongkiart Naowprakorm, 51, or Phra Kongkiart Kittiwanno as he was until Buddhist officials booted him out of the monkhood last week, denies making the visitor to his temple in Nongkhun village of Prakhon Chai district pregnant.
Jiab, 26, as she is known in the media, went public about her plight after the monk refused to take responsibility for her unborn child.
She claims the monk had sex with her multiple times at his temple quarters and knew about the pregnancy, but at the four-month mark he cut off contact with her which ultimately led to her having an abortion on 25th March.
Jiab, from Phlapphla Chai district, said a friend had called in November asking her to take food to the monk as he was there alone at the 7 rai forest temple on public land and does not go out on morning rounds.
Phra Kongkiart lived at the temple for 20 years, though it is unclear how he supported himself as few locals bother with the place or its sole occupant.
Village 10 headman Noi Sarasri said locals aren’t interested in the temple as the monk seldom leaves it and doesn’t care for them.
“They don’t even regard it as a temple,” she said, adding locals would be pleased to see the back of him as Phra Kongkiart had openly flouted monastic rules by mixing with young women and dressing in civilian attire to take meals in the village.
She also claimed he had a history of making women pregnant and that he was raising a child at kindergarten level.
Phra Kongkiart, who did not address his past when reporters last week paid him a visit following Jiab’s claims on Facebook, said Jiab had contacted him on social media asking if she could come and see him.
I told her it was not appropriate for a woman to visit as I am a monk. For a time she went quiet but then showed up with meals,” he said.
Jiab said she visited Phra Kongkairt four or five times before they started having sex. The monk, who admitted sleeping with her, said she brought a dish of crab stew which he believes was laced with a sex stimulant.
He said that after taking a few mouthfuls he felt numb over his body and started to get an erection.
“I asked her what happened, and when I recalled a comment she had made previously, that she always gets the men she wants, I knew I had been drugged,” he said.
“I was lucky I didn’t eat the whole lot or I don’t like to think of how much control I might have lost,” adding he regretted the episode.
“I don’t know who made her pregnant but she has decided to blame me. I should never have let a woman like that dupe me,” he grumbled.
Jiab, unsurprisingly, tells a different version of events, saying that when she visited the monk he did not want to let her leave. “He grabbed my hand and tried to put it on his penis. He was the one who initiated body contact,” she said.
She also denied lacing his food with a sex stimulant. “I know nothing about crab stew. I took him different types of Esan food, which he would only eat after I had left. While I was there he took just coffee,” she said.
The monk knew she was pregnant and told her he was willing to take responsibility for raising the child, but later changed his mind.
“When I reached the four-month mark, he blocked me on FB and Line, and threatened to harm me if I told anyone.”
Jiab complained to police, who, accompanied by officials from the National Office of Buddhism in Buri Ram, visited Phra Kongkiart at the temple and asked to see his monk’s ID.
The document confirmed he was a monk, ordained at a temple elsewhere in the district, but that no other temple had been willing to have him there. They took him back to the temple which ordained him to be defrocked.
Mr Kongkiart later returned to his temple in Nongkhun village, saying he wanted to attend to a long-standing health complaint before deciding on his next course in life.
“If locals want me to leave, that would be unfair as I am a Thai and can live anywhere,” he insisted.
His younger sister, Saranya, 50, said Kongkiart is reaping the consequences of his past misdeeds. She did not elaborate.
Ms Noi, the headman, welcomed the decision to boot him from the monkhood, as letting him stay would tarnish Buddhism.
chiang mai one
