Man charged with fatal attack on young girl

TRANG: Police have arrested a young man who allegedly drugged and raped an eight-year-old girl, resulting in her death.

Saranrat Soosan, 20, was nabbed in the province yesterday. He is charged with raping a girl aged under 15 and assault resulting in death. The suspect, a neighbour of the victim, denied the charges.

Earlier, the girl’s mother laid a complaint of rape, said Pol Maj Charnnarong Klonsom, investigation chief with Ban Nong Trud police in Muang district.

The girl was sent to Trang Hospital after becoming delirious and confused. She died in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

According to the 31-year-old mother, the attack took place at her house early on Tuesday. At the time, she and her husband were working at a rubber plantation, and their children were alone.

Their son, 11, slept in his own room while the girl and her sister, 4, slept together.

The suspect entered the sister’s room and raped the girl, said the mother.

When she returned home around 6am, she found the girl with an acute stomach ache and showing signs of delirium.

She initially assumed her daughter might have been affected by black magic so she took her to see a local fortuneteller, but her condition did not improve.

She decided to take her daughter to Trang Hospital, where doctors found signs she had been raped. As she regained consciousness, the girl said Mr Saranrat came to the house on Monday afternoon and gave her a soft drink.

Mr Saranrat, who was a friend of the father, lived about 500 metres away and arrived after the parents had left for work around 2am.

Doctors said they found traces of methamphetamine in the soft drink.