Police hunting for sex group participants
Police are still looking for the voyeurs and participants in a Line group where acts of sexual violence, including the abuse of a toddler by his mother and stepfather, were trafficked.
Nearly two weeks after police arrested the alleged ringleader of the illicit chat group, the officer investigating the case said they have yet to track down any other members despite tracing financial records, contacting Line and trying to identify people from sex videos posted in the group.
“We will try to identify them, which is still in the investigation process,” Police Lt. Col. Pakphum Prapsriphum of Phitsanulok Police Station said Monday morning. “That’s where we’re starting. Hopefully from them we can then identify the other members in the group.”
The case broke early December when police arrested a man and woman on suspicion they filmed themselves sexually assaulting a 3-year-old boy in exchange for 400 baht.
Pathumporn Mongkornchaiya, the group admin who paid the parents 400 to abuse the toddler and was arrested Dec. 14, told police she was working at the behest of other unidentified parties.
Police said that identifying people from their Line usernames was nearly impossible, so officials starting by looking for the people shown in live sex clips posted to the group.
Pakphum said police had already contacted Line for access to their servers in Japan in hope of information to identify the group members.
Another place police are investigating is where money is being transferred from Pathumporn.
“I don’t believe it was her main job,” Pakphum said, describing the nature of Pathumporn’s admin work, “but a way for her to earn extra money.”
Pakphum said he and his team believe that the group consists of Thai nationals.
“It’s a closed group, like a fanclub for people who are into these things and want to see live videos,” he said. “It mostly went under the radar until a child became involved and then it went viral and became illegal,” he said.
Pakphum said the Line group had a secret Facebook group which posted similar content.
“To get in the group, you have to know someone in it and transfer money before you can be added,” Pakphum said.
Source: Khaosod
