Featured Image Credit: Viral Press / Facebook/Woromet Taota
Topics: World News, News
Jess Hardiman
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting
The father of the British teenager who was killed in Thailand has confronted his son’s killer, angrily telling him to look him in the face during in a heated exchange.
Woramet Ben Taota, a 16-year-old with British nationality, went missing in Thailand on 6 May after he went for a motorcycle ride in Lampang province.
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Police said they received a report the next morning that the teenage boy had been found dead in a grove in the Ban Than district, with his head covered in blood after appearing to have been repeatedly hit with a blunt object.
Officers found a smartphone charger and wallet in his bag but no phone or money, suggesting that he might have been robbed.
Police later recovered the body of his girlfriend Suraphltchaya Khamsa just a few miles from the location where he was found.
Convicted criminal Chaiwat Boongarin has since admitted to killing Ben, claiming it was a drug deal gone wrong - but denies murdering Suraphltchaya.
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He is likely to face the death penalty if convicted of either or both cases.
Police Major General Mongkol Sampawapol, commander of Lampang Provincial Police, said: “We suspect that the suspect is responsible for both murders.
“However, police will also continue investigating the deaths to check if anybody else was involved.
“The female victim's body is now being sent to hospital for an autopsy to find traces of rape or sexual assault, because the suspect has a history of these crimes.”
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Ben’s father, British businessman Steven Graham, has since confronted his son’s killer in a heated exchange in Thailand.
As Boongarin was sitting in the back of a police truck, Graham pointed at him through the tinted window.
When the window was briefly lowered, he said: “Scum, look at me in the eye, look at me in the eye, you b***ard.”
Wearing a bulletproof vest, Boongarin was then escorted in handcuffs to the spot where Ben’s body was found for a crime scene reconstruction.
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Having moved back to allow him to leave the police truck, Graham shouted: “Take his mask off, I want to see his face, you're a coward.
“You're a coward. Look at me. F**king look at me you b***ard. No you can't look because you're a coward. Look at me. You b***ard.”
Graham later said he wanted to ‘throttle’ Boongarin, while Ben’s mum Ooy Taata added: “I cannot understand what happened. My son was a good boy, now he will never grow up. I hope the murderer dies in prison.”