KAREN TORTURE CASE

Police have offered a 100,000-baht bounty for clues leading to the arrest of a couple who have fled bail on charges of torturing a 12-year-old Karen girl.

The reward was announced after two Kamphaeng Phet suspects, identified as Nathi Taeng-on, 35, and his wife Rattanakon Piyaworatham, 33, jumped bail and failed to meet officers yesterday, Provincial Police Region 6 chief Pol Lt Gen Wanchai Thanatkit said yesterday.

They were scheduled to report to police after being released on bail a week ago.

Investigators believe the couple have fled Kamphaeng Phet.

The two, who run a pet care service in the province, were arrested on Feb 7 on charges of assaulting the Karen girl, and detaining and treating her like a slave. They denied the charges.

The victim, whose body was severely burned and wounded, accused the couple of confining her in a dog cage before pouring boiled water on her body.

She said she was given only salt water to cure the wounds without proper treatment.

The girl said she had gone to work with the couple as a servant without her parents' knowledge five years ago. The girl's parents worked on a sugarcane plantation in Kamphaeng Phet.

At the couple's house, she said she was badly treated and assaulted. Sometimes, the girl claimed, she was caged with dogs and left to eat there.

Villager Yuphawan Sichai, 34, who helped the girl after she managed to escape from the couple's house on Dec 31 last year, said she took the girl to a state-run children and family refuge. Officials laid a police complaint against the couple on Feb 2.

The girl's tragedy was taken up by the media after a photo of her injured body was posted on Facebook.

The girl is now gradually regaining her strength, said officials at the refuge which is now taking care of her.