Thailand's Daily Crime Pill #4: Farang in Exile & Another "Pretty" Affair
Things just keep gettin' better and better in LoS.
Dear expats and readers,
Let’s hop right into it.
After publishing yesterday’s story of the Japanese chef who swindled 2 million baht from a fellow Japanese national, claiming that he knew a big-shot in the judicial system that could resolve 3 civil court cases, and instead took the money to open a Japanese restaurant in Pathum Thani, a Japanese reader of True Crime Thailand contacted me on Twitter to share the identity of the thief’s restaurant.
The restaurant in question was named after the chef himself — Yamada, and you can find its location and reviews here.
The savvy Twitter follower also retweeted the story and added a bit of commentary in Japanese — stating “The Japanese deceive the Japanese. I am sad.” — along with linking to a Japanese language version of the same story.
This all happened after I sent out my last dispatch to you all, so figured I’d add this update for this Crime Pill.
That last bit of reader interaction gave me warm and fuzzies, but I woke up to something that should concern every foreigner in Thailand or with interests in the country.
I came across this Facebook video about David Streckfuss, a long-time resident of Thailand and professor at Khon Kaen University.
Last month his role at KKU was terminated, his visa revoked, and he was given one month to leave the country.
The Facebook video, published on May 2nd, claims that Mr. Streckfuss married a Thai woman recently in order to obtain a visa and to stay in the country.
More shocking are claims in the video that the scholar is actually a CIA plant in Thailand to disrupt the country on behalf of meddling thinktanks.
It’s a wild claim and it’s one that I’d reckon is fully unsubstantiated, but I wanted to bring it to your attention.
Mr. Streckfuss also manages The Isaan Record and made this official statement on their website on April 20th, 2021 regarding claims of producing anti-monarchial content.
In any case, let’s jump into the featured story for this Crime Pill.
Down the hatch it goes…
Feature Story
10 Different "Pretty" Models Drugged, Raped, and Filmed by Modeling Agent in Bangkok
The models range in age from 18 to 25 years old — they were lured into Bangkok area condos and hotels under the false premise of modeling gigs.
On May 5th, 2021, a lawyer representing one of the victims gave a press conference in front of the Bang Khun Thian police station in Bangkok in regards to the claims against Mr. Denphum, aged 39.
Mr. Denphum runs an agency called Nonthaburi Province Modeling (จ.นนทบุรี โมเดลลิ่งเก๊) — which he used as a front to lure young models to rented condos and hotels throughout Bangkok to drug and rape and get it all on film.
An arrest warrant was issued on the evening of May 4th for Mr. Denphum.
According to reports there are up to 10 "Prettys" who have been victimized by Mr. Denphum over the course of several months. Their stories and experiences mirror each other in the reports they've filed with Bangkok police.
On May 2nd, police brought Mr. Denphum in for questioning. One of the victims, identified by the alias Ms. Fah, a 22 year old university student and model, was also at the police station giving her report about the drugging and rape she experienced.
She identified the Metro Park Sathorn condo, room 157 on the 7th floor, building C3, in the Phasi Charoen district of Bangkok as the scene of the crime. She said the drugging and rape happened in the early evening hours of May 1st.
One report states that when Ms. Fah entered the room — it was empty. Nobody was there. Suddenly, Mr. Denphum jumped from the shadows with a knife — roughly 10cm long — and confiscated her cell phone.
Next, he forced her to smoke crystal meth or ice with him. He then proceeded to strip Ms. Fah down and raped her without a condom, using his cell phone to film the rape.
The rape went on all night until the morning of May 2nd — which is when Mr. Denphum finally passed out asleep. This is when Ms. Fah took her chance to flee, but not before snatching Mr. Denphum's phone and ID card. She ran out of the condo without shoes on and asked the building security guard to bring her to the police station.
Mr. Denphum filed his own criminal report — claiming that Ms. Fah stole a gold ring from him while she was in his room. Police from the Forensics Division (BEC) evaluated the evidence of that claim and found that Mr. Denphum threw a fake gold ring in the trash bin, which is the same ring he claimed was stolen by Ms. Fah.
During the interrogation, Mr. Denphum left the police station and was not detained, according to reports.
Another victim, a model identified as Ms. Fon, aged 23, also a university student, came forward on May 4th with her own evidence against the accused. She showed police a bank transfer of 2,500 baht that Mr. Denphum sent for Ms. Fon's services for the evening.
Ms. Fon claims that she met with Mr. Denphum on the night of April 9th. She said there were several young women aged 19 or 20 years old in the hotel room, which was on Soi Charansanitwong 40/1.
Mr. Denphum solicited Ms. Fon's services claiming that it was for an "entertainment event". The victim said that several of the other models there seemed drunk already.
Shortly after she arrived, Mr. Denphum threatened her with a fruit-peeling knife, forced her to give up her phone and wallet, strip down naked, smoke ice, and rape her. Mr. Denphum also stole 5,000 baht from Ms. Fon's wallet.
Around noon the next day, Mr. Denphum used Line to contact another model, aged 25, who traveled from Nonthaburi to the room. She suffered the same fate as Ms. Fon, who was released after the other model arrived.
Ms. Fon claims that she did not report Mr. Denphum to the police because he threatened to find and kill her if she did. But when she heard the news about Ms. Fah being treated the same way on a Line group for Pretty models, she was encouraged to file her own report.
Up to 10 other models have come forward with similar stories.
One report was dug up from February 2018 that showed Mr. Denphum being arrested for impersonating a modeling agent. He used this assumed identity to trick an 18 year old model from Korat to his room, where he stripped her down, raped, and filmed the encounter.
Mr. Denphum was released from custody after that incident for unknown reasons.
He is now suspected of hiding out in either Thonburi or Nonthaburi, which is where police are searching for him.
In a strange twist of fate or coincidence, Mr. Denphum goes by the nickname "Ice" —which is the same nickname as the now infamous serial killer Ice Heep Lek, whose story hit headlines last year. His full story can be read here.
Video of Mr. Denphum and re-enactment of his crimes:
Sources: https://www.khaosod.co.th/update-news/news_6378421, https://www.dailynews.co.th/crime/841348, https://www.dailynews.co.th/crime/841076
My Take on Mr. Denphum & the Pretties:
I’d like to know how and why Mr. Denphum got off the previous charges in Feb. 2018, and what kind of investigation was done at that time.
This guy was no stranger to this sort of deception and abuse — and I’d reckon there’s more women out there between 2018 and now that have gone unnamed and will remain unknown.
Right now I’d imagine there’s a glut of young women out there who are looking to make a quick baht — who take the jump into sidelining as a Pretty.
I’ve seen dozens of “Pretty Model” Facebook and Line groups where attractive young women advertise their services for the evening — and don’t get it wrong here, most of the time the work is free from this kind of abuse.
The way it typically goes down is the Pretty gets hired for the night for anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 baht to attend to a man and his drinking. They’re largely freelance gigs that are highly competitive.
In the Facebook groups I’ve seen (links available upon request), two scenarios play out: potential punters post what they’re looking for that night, or the girls post a collage of photos of themselves in tight dresses hiked up and their faces dolled up with war-paint.
It’s a service that’s largely out of reach for most farang and other foreigners in Thailand simply because of the language barrier. I’ve never seen a single gal advertise their services in English, and these groups are all in Thai, even the names of the groups themselves.
Mr. Denphum farmed leads for gals out of these groups — moving the conversation to Line, and setting up paid engagements either for fake modeling gigs or an evening of drinking and entertainment.
I’ve set up a Google Alert on this case for further developments, as the Thai press has sunk its teeth into this story, but it may likely disappear like so many tales like this do.
Take this case, for example, of another fake modeling agent who preyed on underage kids in Songkhla.
I covered the case in January, and although there was an initial flurry of press about the matter — even bringing Thai celebrities out on Instagram to speak about the exploitation of young children on their path to stardom — there’s been no further info that I’ve been able to find on the suspect or his sentencing.
As is the case with crimes like these, the abuses often go on for some time before the law gets involved — sometimes because victims are reluctant to come forward, waiting for others to take the initiative; sometimes out of fear for retribution; and sometimes just out of a plain distrust for the legal system in the country.
When it comes to Pretty models, there’s an added dimension: the association of this kind of work with prostitution, which is a gut-level connection that I can bet even you made while reading this story. Fact is, the law is slow to come to the rescue of a lady of the night in a country where it’s illegal — remember, prostitution doesn’t exist in Thailand!
Even further still: in Thailand, if a woman goes to a man’s room, whatever happens there once inside, well, she was basically asking for it.
I’d like to hope in the case of Mr. Denphum the full weight of his actions will bring a strong hand of the law down on him.
But he’s gotten away with it once before, and frankly I’d bet he’ll be in the news sometime down the road again.
That’s all for today…
Until tomorrow’s Crime Pill, stay safe out there everybody.
- True Crime Thailand