Boy in coma after ‘monk’s brutal attack’

Mum urges action, suspect defrocked

KANCHANABURI: A temple novice is in coma after the boy suffered multiple injuries from an attack, allegedly by a senior monk.

Novice Wattanapol Sisawad, 9, was receiving medical treatment at Phaholpolpayuhasena Hospital in Muang district and doctors said that his condition was deteriorating. The boy remains unconscious. Police said his body and head were severely bruised, and an X-ray examination found his right arm and wrist were broken. The novice was ordained at Wat Don Khamin in Tha Maka district of the central province.

Pol Capt Amnat Chanbutr, deputy chief of Luk Kae police, said the injuries probably stem from an attack, but police will wait for confirmation from doctors. The prime suspect was Phra Suppachai Sutthiyano, a 64-year-old monk at the temple. He said the monk, who has been defrocked, admitted assaulting the novice. The monk said he had been assigned by the abbot temple to take care of four novices. Phra Suppachai claimed novice Wattanapol was a stubbornly disobedient boy. He lost temper and hit the boy with a birch many times.

Phra Suppachai has been charged with assault causing severe injuries. Another temple novice, a witness at the scene, said Novice Wattanapol was sick but Phra Suppachai ordered him to sit in a tub of water for hours before calling him out and hitting him. He also told him to dry himself in front of a fan.

Later while some other monks and novices were meditating, Phra Suppachai came to ask Novice Wattanapol why he had bullied another junior novice. The boy denied it, the monk pushed him and his chin hit a pillar of the building and he lost consciousness, the witness said.

The senior monk thought the boy was pretending so he lifted the boy and dropped him on the floor again. The abbot told the witness to take the injured boy upstairs. He learned later the boy had been sent to hospital.

The witness said Novice Wattanapol had tried to set the temple and other novices on fire. Sukanya Tunhin, Novice Wattanapol’s mother, said the boy was ordained on April 2 and the last time she visited him was Aug 5.

She knew that Phra Suppachai hurt her son sometimes but never took action as the monk had been kind to her and given her food. This time, however, she wanted to take legal action. Novice Wattanapol was injured on Saturday and admitted to Makarak Hospital in Tha Maka. After his condition failed to improve, he was transferred to Phaholpolpayuhasena Hospital later that night.