From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Sunday September 27
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A 28-year British woman, who hired a taxi driver to take her back to her room on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui, was instead taken to a coconut plantation, dragged screaming from the car, beaten and then raped,it was claimed today.
After the attack the woman was then robbed of her cash and dumped by the road to walk home.
Today police charged a 21-yr-old local taxi driver with rape and are questioning an accomplice who used his pick-up to dump the woman referred to as ‘Lilly’ (not real name) afterwards and then robbed her of 1,700 Thai baht (£31.60p)
Police on Koh Samui say that the 21-yr-old driver picked up the woman, an English Language teacher, as a fare early on Saturday morning in Chaweang Beach, but drove past the woman’s lodgings in Lamai Beach and took her instead to house in coconut plantation.
‘He dragged her out of the car against her will and beat her in the process. He then raped her in the house,’ said Deputy Police Commander Paiboon Krajakchan.
Paiboon Krajakchan said: ‘We are treating this matter seriously. It is important that Koh Samui is seen as a safe destination for tourists.’
Koh Samui has been the scene of a number of rapes of British and foreign tourists. The most infamous case was that of Katherine Horton who was raped and murdered on Lamai Beach on New Year’s day 2006 by two fisherman who boasted to friends that she was ‘fun and delicious’.
The fishermen were sentenced to death, reduced later to life imprisonment.
Katherine Horton
