PHUKET: A sushi vendor has been charged with rape after a British woman said he attacked her at his house near Nai Harn.
Amnart Atthachak, 40, was arrested at his house in tambon Rawai of Muang district on Friday, said Pol Col Withoon Kongsudjai, deputy chief of Phuket police.
The 24-year-old tourist filed a complaint with Chalong police at 9am on Friday. She said a Thai man had raped her in his room near Nai Harn beach.
The woman, who was travelling alone, told police she had visited some beer bars in the Kata-Karon area on Thursday night. She met a man known only as “Mai” and drank some beer with him. She later asked him to take her back to her hotel on his motorcycle because she was drunk. However, she said he took her to his house instead.
Once there, she said, she quickly fell asleep. When she awoke, she found the man was sexually assaulting her. She fought back before running away to seek help from local residents.
Police sent the woman to a hospital for a checkup, while investigators began gathering evidence and tracking down the suspect, who was subsequently caught.
Police said Mr Amnart told them he had met the British woman at the Kata Green Beach bar and they drank together before he took her to his rented house.
He admitted to taking advantage of the unconscious woman but denied using his penis. The woman insisted she had been penetrated with a penis and not a finger as the man had claimed.
Fearing infection, she had washed herself many times, she added.
Mr Amnart remains in custody on charges of rape by forcibly abusing a victim in a defenceless situation. The offence carries a jail term of 4-20 years.
The question of whether a suspect used his sex organ or not is irrelevant since Section 276 of the Penal Code defines rape as using any object on another person who is in no position to resist, said Pol Col Thongchai Wilaiprom of Tourist Police Division 3.
The British woman is still in the country under the care of officials, and her embassy has been notified. Doctors have confirmed she was not infected as a result of the incident, said Pol Col Thongchai.
