Woman denies stealing lover's infant as search continues
Police yesterday released a woman they were holding for questioning over the much-publicised kidnapping of a newborn twin baby from Lop Buri province after she retracted her confession and witnesses failed to identify her as the baby snatcher.
Sakhon Kamto, 24, was apprehended in Udon Thani province on Monday and investigators said she confessed to abducting the baby from Lop Buri Hospital on April 14.However, Sakhon yesterday retracted her confession, claiming it had been made under duress. She had frightened by the heavy pressure of the interrogation, police said. Lop Buri police also put Sakhon in a line-up yesterday, but none of the five witnesses identified her as the baby snatcher. Following questioning on Monday, police said they believed Sakhon had disguised herself as a hospital worker to kidnap the younger of newborn twin daughters from Lop Buri Hospital on April 14. The twins were born to Ratree Trakanchan, 22. Sakhon had had an affair with the father of the twins, Suprot Khanthongdee, 29, when they worked together at a sandwich factory in Chon Buri, police said. After Sakhon's retraction yesterday, the fate of the abducted infant remained unknown. Police said they would cancel plans to seek arrest warrants against Sakhon and her mother, Amporn, 50, whom they earlier suspected to have been an accomplice. During questioning on Monday, Sakhon first claimed she had dumped the stolen baby in a secluded area near a hotel in Lop Buri, but claimed she threw her into Huay Luang stream in Udon Thani's Muang district, police said. Police in Lop Buri and Udon Thani searched both sites yesterday and found nothing. Maj-General Kamronwit Thoopkrajang, commander of the women and children's protection division, said police have been tense and confused because both Sakhon and the baby's father, Suprot, gave confusing testimony. "Police are still working hard, searching for the kidnapped baby and hoping she will be found alive," he said. According to police, after Suprot's wife learnt of her husband's affair, Sakhon moved to Songkhla. However, she visited Suprot in Lop Buri on April 9 before returning home by April 12. Suprot then went to be with his wife, Ratree, who gave birth to the twin daughters. The Public Health Ministry has called for stricter security measures at hospitals. Hospital staff will have to display identity cards during working hours, visitors will have to exchange their identity cards for official passes, and anyone wishing to take a baby out of a hospital will have to show the baby's birth certificate, an official said.
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