Strange link to rape and insurance
On 3 September, Sky News reported that a British teenager who claimed to have been raped on the Thai island of Koh Tao in June has said that the island's police refused to investigate her claims and so she went to neighbouring island, Koh Phangan, to report the crime.
Police on Koh Tao now say they have investigated and that the evidence they have gathered does not support her version of events. Strangely, they also were quoted as saying some tourists make up stories to claim on their insurance.
The tourist police chief on Koh Tao told the Bangkok Post that the police are awaiting testimony from the teenager, having contacted Scotland Yard via the British Embassy to question her (the girl now being back in the UK). He said he would consider her statement, but if her ‘words are not true we need to press a charge against her on a false complaint, blacklist her and prohibit her from entering Thailand indefinitely’.
The teenager claims to have been drugged, stripped, robbed and raped on Sairee Beach. Another girl was reported to have been subjected to the same treatment in April of this year
The safety of tourists on islands such as Koh Tao and Koh Samui has long been under scrutiny with at least seven tourists having died under mysterious circumstances on Koh Tao since 2014, with many of their families accusing police of a cover-up. These included the case of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller who were murdered also on Sairee Beach in September 2014. Witheridge had been raped and bludgeoned to death, and Miller died from blows to the head. Although two men from Myanmar were convicted of their murders, they still claim their innocence, and there has been much international speculation about the validity of the forensic evidence used to convict them.
There is also the report of another girl being raped on Koh Tao in April of this year, in frighteningly similar circumstances.
The Deputy Director-General of the Department of the Attorney General in Thailand wrote about the incident on his Facebook page: “Police should not have brought a charge of making a false claim against the woman. We should explain the truth of this event to the international community after the investigation is closed.”
Questions have to be asked why a rape case would be linked with a (dubious) travel insurance claim, be by it the claimant, or the local authorities to whom it is reported.? The really important question to address, though, is why is there such a high proportion of violent crime in these Islands.