Robert Andrew, high on speed pills and crystal methamphetamine, was riding a motorbike without number plates and attempted to molest a young girl at a roadside honey stall in the Ban Phai district of Khon Kaen after he brutally assaulted and raped a 45-year-old woman at a massage parlour earlier on Monday. The US man’s rampage has caused anger and revulsion in the kingdom.
A 37-year-old American man is to be taken back to Khon Kaen to face legal prosecution on charges for the serious assault and rape of a 45-year old massage parlour worker on Monday and the later sexual assault of a young girl in the Ban Phai district of the province. He was arrested at an apartment in Soi Nana, off Sukhumvit in Bangkok, on Saturday morning after the National Police Commissioner, General Suwat Jangyodsuk, asked that the case be given priority due to the disrespect shown for the law by the visiting tourist who entered Thailand through Suvarnabhumi Airport in January this year.
A 37-year-old American was arrested by police on Soi Nana in Bangkok on Saturday in connection with the brutal assault and rape of a 45-year-old woman in Khon Kaen and the later attempted sexual assault of a young girl in the Ban Phai district of the province, last Monday, has been identified provisionally as Mr Robert Andrew, a US Citizen.
The man was taken in for questioning by officers from the Immigration Police and Provincial Police Region 4 on Saturday to Immigration Bureau headquarters in central Bangkok following his arrest.
Rape, assault causing harm and false imprisonment among charges being pursued by Khon Kaen police
He will later be transported back to Khon Kaen where he is expected to face legal prosecution on very serious charges including false imprisonment, rape and assault causing injury to another person.
It is understood that a team, led by Provincial Police Region 4’s Police Lieutenant General Yanyong Vet-osod, arrested Mr Andrew at his Bangkok condominium on Saturday on foot of warrant no 160/2564 issued by Khon Kaen Provincial Court on Friday, October 1st after investigators were led to him as the main suspect in a number of incidents last Monday.
Mother filed a complaint after her daughter was sexually attacked by the drugs crazed American
Later on Monday, at Ban Phai Police Station, a 32-year-old woman brought her young daughter to file a complaint with police after the minor had been sexually assaulted by the same foreigner as she tended to her parent’s stall on the roadside.
The mother told police that her daughter was off school because of COVID-19 restrictions and had been left at one of the family’s stalls selling honey by the roadside normally tended to by her father. He had earlier set off to seek wood to make repairs.
The American man, now identified as Mr Robert Andrew, drove by on a motorbike without plates but then did a U-turn and approached the girl from behind the stall.
The girl told police that the man grabbed her T-shirt in an effort to force her down. He also opened his trousers to reveal his penis. He spoke to her in a foreign language and attempted to kiss her.
When the girl resisted, he punched her in the mouth.
Two lorry drivers passing the scene had honked at the man but the last, an oil tanker driver, stopped to intervene prompting the American to flee on his motorbike.
Seen coming out of the massage parlour on Monday in the centre of Khon Kaen after brutally assaulting, choking and raping a 45-year-old woman inside
On Monday morning, Mr Andrew was seen by a neighbour coming out of the Dee Na traditional Thai massage parlour on the Rong Muang Road in Khon Kaen where, later, an overflow of water alerted locals to the plight of a lone worker within the massage shop who was found in a bloodied, battered and unconscious state.
The neighbour told police that the American man, wearing trousers and a pink shirt, smiled at her as he mounted his motorbike and drove off.
A 45-year-old masseuse whose son told police that his mother had only returned to Thailand 7 months ago from Australia, was found in an unconscious state naked on the floor of a room inside the facility.
The injured woman, who was removed to the hospital and placed under close medical supervision by doctors, was not in a position to give a police statement when she regained consciousness.
She is understood to be from Lopburi province in central Thailand.
Owner of the massage parlour raised the alarm after using remote-controlled CCTV to locate her on the premises after the attack and assess her injuries
The woman was found by the owner of the massage parlour who was able to identify her location and condition using surveillance cameras installed within the massage shop premises remotely.
The witness told the media that the woman appeared to have been choked and beaten.
Police Major General Nopakao Somanas is the Chief of Khon Kaen Police.
He told the press that police had identified the American visiting several establishments in the area on both Monday and Tuesday causing disturbances.
American confessed to the crimes saying he was high on speed pills and crystal methamphetamine
The American, following his arrest on Saturday, confessed to all the charges ranged against him while being questioned. He told them he had been high on drugs and had taken speed pills which made him become sexually aroused.
Police have confirmed that Mr Andrew was using crystal methamphetamine.
A search on his record within the Immigration Bureau system revealed that he entered Thailand in January this year through Suvarnabhumi Airport and had been staying in the kingdom on visa extensions granted under the COVID-19 emergency.
He last applied for such a waiver at the Immigration Bureau office on Ko Samui in Surat Thani province.
The case has shocked Thailand and brought an intervention for the National Police Commissioner General Suwat Jangyodsuk who ordered his officers to give it priority status as the suspect appeared to have no fear or regard for the law in Thailand while also posing an immediate risk to the safety of others.
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Further reading:
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Pattaya police release grainy CCTV of UK man picking up the woman he later brutally murdered at home
Bampot American sent for mental health review after suspect package alert near US Bangkok Embassy
American drug dealing fugitive is declared dead at Sa Kaeo hospital 8 days after shooting
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Australian man’s heartbreak cut off from his Thai wife – begs to be included on repatriation flights
Police to track down arrivals last night who escaped Suvarnabhumi Airport in defiance of emergency
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