PATONG: -- A tuk-tuk driver arrested yesterday afternoon has denied raping a 20-year-old female Australian tourist in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Pol Col Teeraphol Thipjareon, Superintendent of Kathu District Police Station, today told the Gazette, “The suspect has admitted that he took the woman back to her hotel on the night in question but he denies raping her.”

Col Teeraphol declined to comment further.

However, Thai-language daily newspaper Kom Chad Luek yesterday reported that a friend of the alleged victim had told police that before the incident they had been drinking around Soi Bangla.

Just after midnight they hailed a tuk-tuk from the end of the soi and lifted the woman, who was having difficulty walking, into the back of the vehicle, the report said.

The friends gave the driver 500 baht, telling h im to take the woman back to the Merlin Beach Resort at Tritrang Beach, where they were staying. When they arrived back at the hotel, they knocked on the woman’s door to check that she had arrived safely, said the report.

The woman, in tears, said that the driver had raped her at a secluded spot at Tritrang Beach. After he had finished raping her, he took her back to her hotel, the report said.

The report also said that doctors at Patong Hospital, who also declined to give comment to the Gazette, had examined the victim, and told police that the woman had grazes on both elbows and traces of semen in her vagina and underwear. A sample of the semen was taken as evidence.

Two of the woman’s friends who had hired the tuk-tuk for her were asked by officers at Kathu District Police Station to try to identify the assailant from a book of photos of Patong tuk-tuk drivers, the report said.

One of the friends was able to p ick out the alleged attacker and photos of the man were distributed to police throughout the beach resort town.

--Phuket Gazette/Kom Chad Luek 2006-09-09

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Australian tourist allegedly r_aped

PHUKET: -- Police in the Thai holiday resort of Phuket are investigating the alleged rape of a young Australian tourist.

The 20-year-old was allegedly raped in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The incident is said to have occurred after the woman, whose name and address has not been revealed, had been drinking with friends for several hours on Tritrang Beach.

Pol Col Teeraphol Thipjareon said the suspect, a tuk-tuk (taxi) driver, admitted taking the woman back to her hotel on the night in question but denies raping her.

A local newspaper reported that a friend of the alleged victim told police that after a night's drinking they hailed a tuk-tuk and helped the woman, who was having difficulty walking, into the vehicle, which then drove off.

The friends paid the driver in advance and instructed him to take the woman back to the Merlin Beach Resort at Tritrang Beach, where they were all staying.

When they arrived back at the hotel, they knocked on the woman's door to check that she had arrived safely.

She allegedly appeared in tears and described how the driver had sexually assaulted her before driving her home.

The report also said doctors at Patong Hospital had examined the victim, and told police that they found grazes on both elbows and traces of semen in her vagina and underwear.

A sample of the semen was taken as evidence.

The suspect was picked up by police after the girl's friends identified him from a book of photographs.

--news.com.au 2006-09-09