A sex crimes convict has admitted to murdering a 16-year-old British boy who was found battered to death in a Thai forest on Sunday, May 7.
EsB earlier reported that a British boy was found dead in a Thai forest as police hunt for his missing girlfriend.
Chaiwat Boongarin, 44, said he hit teenager Woramet Ben Taota when a drug deal went wrong, according to Thai police.
Officials say the man claims Taota and his girlfriend Suraphltchaya Khamsa, also 16, were methamphetamine runners for him, but they stole the substances from him.
The thug, who has previous convictions for sex crimes, allegedly lured Ben to a forest and then beat him to death with a stick before Khamsa fled.
Boongarin is now being remanded in custody in the Mae Tha district, and officers are expected to take him on a crime reconstruction later today.
His girlfriend, Khamsa has not been seen since Taota’s body was found with a deep wound on his head and cuts across his face.
Officers said Boonkarin confessed to killing the teenager after an argument broke out, according to DailyMail.
Boonkarin became very angry and hit the boy to death with a piece of wood because he believed Taota stole something and was lying, according to reports.
The 44-year-old, who had connections to the local drug trade, was released from prison eight months ago after being convicted of sex crimes.
Police Major General Mongkol Sampawapol said: ‘The killer was angry because he believed that Woramet kept the drugs for himself and his girlfriends, so he hit Woramet with a stick several times until he died.’
Dual national Taota borrowed his mother’s blue scooter and was seen riding with a girl on the back before he was found dead the next day in Lampang province on May 7. His body was later found in a grove, with injuries resembling blunt force.
Ben’s grandmother Lilian Graham told DailyMail on Tuesday that she believes he was persuaded to go to the forest where he was murdered.
Speaking from the family home in Eastbourne, East Sussex, Mrs Graham said: ‘Ben was with a girl and they went to the forest to meet a man. But something must have happened. And the man killed Ben. They don’t know what has happened to the girl.’
Officers had reported that the teenager’s phone and cash were missing from his shoulder bag, and suggested he might have been robbed.
They believe he was killed elsewhere and left in the woods as there were no signs of struggle.
