PATTAYA: A police lance corporal at Nong Prue in Bang Lamung district faces dismissal from the force after being charged with extortion and forcing a 22-year-old woman to have sex with him and two accomplices.
Pol Col Apichai Krobpet, chief of the Muang Pattaya police station, said on Monday that witnesses and surveillance camera footage from an apartment building where the woman stayed confirmed a lance corporal from Nong Prue station visited the premises on Saturday.
He was accompanied by two other men who were dressed like police volunteers, but were not.
Nong Prue police later detained and took the three suspects to Muang Pattaya police station where the woman had filed a complaint.
The three men admitted to being at the apartment building on Soi Bongkot in South Pattaya, tambon Nong Prue, but denied they raped and extorted money from the woman.
The woman was summoned for additional questioning and confirmation the suspects were the men involved, Pol Col Apichai said. He had asked the Chon Buri police commander to dismiss the policeman from the force. He also said the woman had nothing to do with any narcotic business.
The three men were charged with illegal detention, extortion and gang rape. They denied the charges.
Their names were not released.
The woman told reporters late on Sunday night that three men followed her male friend when he arrived to visit her on Saturday. They searched her room and demanded 30,000 baht from her, threatening legal action against her if she did not pay.
Then they took her to a motel where they forced her to have sex with them. She said the man in a police uniform went last. He also took all the money she had with her and warned that if she did not pay the remainder in the near future, he knew where she lived.
Police said security camera footage showed the three men wore face masks. One of them was in a police uniform and the two other dressed like police volunteers, but they were not.
