Thai police threaten to charge British teenager over ‘false’ rape claim
Police in Thailand are threatening to charge a British teenager with making a false rape allegation during her holiday in Koh Tao.
They also say they will ban the 19 year-old from the country after she claimed she was drugged, stripped, robbed and raped in June on Sairee Beach.
Thai officers claim to have been in touch with Scotland Yard to question the girl and say that if her account doesn’t match evidence they will charge her with making a false complaint.
Police on Koh Tao claim some tourists make up stories in order to be able to make an insurance claim and the island’s tourist police chief Surachate Hakparn told the media the island wants to ‘screen’ visitors more thoroughly.
He claimed there have been at least four recent cases of false complaints by tourists – two on Koh Tao, one on Koh Samui and one on Krabi on the mainland.
Police are taking legal action against them and have informed the immigration bureau to put their names on a blacklist, he added.
In the latest incident, the teenager claimed police on Koh Tao refused to investigate her allegation, so she reported the crime on the neighbouring island Koh Phangan.
Police on Koh Tao now claim that the evidence they gathered doesn’t support her version of events.
Since 2014 at least seven tourists have died under mysterious circumstances on Koh Tao. Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, was raped and bludgeoned to death and David Miller, 24, died from blows to his head on Sairee Beach in September 2014.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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