The national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda confirms the blacklisting of a British woman, 19, and the administrator of the CSI LA page on Facebook for reporting a "rape" on Koh Tao that has been dismissed by police.
Pol Gen Chakthip said on Wednesday that when police officially prove the rape claim was groundless, the woman and the page administrator would be blacklisted from entering the country.
He denied knowledge of the CSI LA page's report that Interpol had agreed to process the alleged rape case. Police were hunting for the administrator of the page and had already arrested several people who shared the rape claim from the page, Pol Gen Chakthip said.
The national police chief insisted that police investigators had done their best to verify the claim that the British woman was drugged, raped and robbed on Sairee beach of Koh Tao of Surat Thani province on the night of June 25.
Detectives based their probe on forensic evidence and found the claim groundless, he said.
"Footage from about 100 local surveillance cameras was examined. Given evidence from so many cameras, a culprit would have been arrested if the incident had occurred," Pol Gen Chakthip said.
He asserted that police investigators had not jumped to any conclusions.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn, deputy chief of tourist police, had already reported the finding to the British consul-general, who did not dispute it, Pol Gen Chakthip said.
At this stage, Thai police were waiting for evidence that the British tourist reportedly planned to hand over, he said.
