33-year-old unemployed music and dance teacher has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornographic material in Chiang Mai province.
He was arrested after Chiang Mai police joined forces with Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children (TICAC) task force on Friday (June 19) raided a house in Saraphee district after being tipped off about internet activities involving downloads of pornographic materials of children as young as 10 years old.
Officials arrested the owner, Chai (last name withheld), after they allegedly found several pornographic images of male and female children in two laptop computers, two mobile telephones and several USB flash drives and SD cards. Chai reportedly admitted that he had downloaded all the materials after joining a group on Line application that must pay for membership before downloading the files.
Investigation also revealed that the suspect used to be a music and dance teacher at a private school in Chiang Mai but was now out of a job after his contract with the school ended.
Chai was charged with possessing child pornographic material, which carries a maximum punishment of five years jail time, or Bt100,000 fine, or both.
Police will also investigate the Line group for possible involvement in human trafficking.
The ICAC task force has launched its “Save Children Operation” during Covid-19 situation when computer-related crimes have spiked. In 56 days of operations in 24 provinces, they have made 47 arrests and helped 100 victims, as well as seized more than 150,000 images of child porn.
