A former Muay Thai champion arrested in Bangkok following the stabbing death of his father has admitted assaulting him but police say they have evidence to charge him with murder.
Arthit Thaosaeng was handed over to Nong Rua police in Khon Kaen on Saturday after his arrest in Bangkok on Friday night.
The former boxer, once a headliner at Lumpini Stadium where he fought as “Khunsuek P.N. Gym”, was apprehended by Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers at a house on Lat Phrao Soi 126 in Wang Thong Lang district of Bangkok.
Muay Thai fans voted a bout between Khunsuek (Warrior) and The-Lek Wor. Sangprapai the Lumpini Fight of the Year in 2011.
The arrest came after Paisarn Thaosaeng, 66, was found stabbed to death at his house at Nong Saeng village in Nong Rua district of Khon Kaen on Thursday.
Local residents told police that the victim was killed by his son. Relatives and neigbhours said that Arthit had quit boxing and returned from Bangkok to stay with his father. But he often drank and assaulted the older man.
Police say the suspect fled to stay at his elder sister’s house in Bangkok, where CSD officers found him. He was later taken back to Khon Kaen.
Pol Col Charaspat Sutthayasoranakhom, the deputy Khon Kaen police commander, said the suspect gave conflicting accounts and confessed only to having assaulted his father.
Police investigators found that Arthit had been a patient at a psychiatric hospital in Khon Kaen in 2016. Medication for his condition was found in his possession, said Pol Col Charaspat.
Police say they have obtained sufficient evidence to implicate Arthit in the killing of his father. They expect to take him for a crime re-enactment following further interrogation.
