First rape, then blackmail

A 25-year-old tour guide yesterday filed a complaint at Bangkok's Paholyothin police station that a taxi driver raped her on Tuesday and took a video clip with his phone to blackmail her against going to the police.

The victim, accompanied by her army official father, said that after a merit making trip to Sara Buri, she was given a lift by a friend to Soi Lat Phrao. From there, she hailed a taxi for the trip back to her home in Soi Pattanakarn at about 10pm.

Video clip taken

 Claiming that he knew a shortcut, the dark skinned, long haired taxi driver in his 30s took her along the Bang Bua Thong Suphan Buri Road.

She said that after parking in an isolated soi, possibly in Nonthaburi's Sai Not district, the taxi driver claimed he had a gun, raped her twice and took a video clip.

"He said he had done this many times before with female passengers, and took my mo¬bile phone, my ID card and my ATM card."

Similar crimes investigated

The taxi driver used her card to withdraw Bt700 before driving her back to the pickup point and threatening that he would publish the video clip to shame her if she filed a police complaint, she said.

Pol Lt Colonel Veera Ngamlert of Paholyothin police station said that his men were investigating the taxi driver's claims to have committed similar crimes of rape, robbery and illegal detention in various jurisdictions across Bangkok.

He said that police investigators in these areas would be contacted so that the hunt for the suspect could be widened.

The victim was sent for a physical examination at the Police General Hospital.