Former Miss Thailand to push for harsher punishment against rapists

PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN, THAILAND, September 30 (TNA) - A former Miss Thailand vows that she will push for the amendment of laws for harsher punishment against rapists. The former Miss Thailand, Panadda Wongphudee, who is also a famous actress, made the vow on Tuesday, when she showed up at a court in seaside Hua Hin District of Prachuap Khiri Khan Province in the Upper Thai South to boost morale of the family of a dead victim of a recent rape case. The court, meanwhile, sentenced a former railway worker, Wanchai Saengkhao, to death for raping and killing the 13-year-old girl passenger on a rapid train from the southern Nakhon Si Thammarat Province to Bangkok late at night of July 6. The court said that the man deserved only the death sentence as his crime was brutal and inhumane and affected social peace, while his confession to have raped and thrown the girl victim off the running train only followed strong evidence proving his crime. For the second defendant, Natthakorn Chamnan, the court sentenced him to a six-year imprisonment for supporting the rapist, but his confession during police interrogation was useful; so, the court commuted his jail term to four years. Both defendants can appeal within 30 days. (TNA)