Wirapol Sukphol Rape Conviction

Wirapol Sukphol, ordained in 1999 and known by his monastic name Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko, built a following at Pa Khantitham, a forest monastery in Sisaket province near Thailand's border with Cambodia. In 2013, a video showing him aboard a private jet, wearing designer sunglasses and carrying cash and a Louis Vuitton bag, made him a national scandal as the "jet-set monk." He was stripped of his monastic status that year and fled to the United States as Thai authorities investigated fraud and sexual abuse allegations against him, before being extradited back to Thailand in July 2017.

The Criminal Court in Bangkok convicted him twice. In August 2018 it found him guilty of fraud, money laundering and computer crimes, sentencing him to 114 years, capped at the statutory maximum of 20 years for multiple counts of the same offense. Two months later, in October 2018, the same court convicted him of abducting and repeatedly raping a girl aged 13 to 14 in Sisaket province between January 2000 and mid 2001; DNA evidence, taken from a cigarette he had smoked, confirmed he had fathered a child with her. He received a further 16 years, 8 for the rape and 8 for the abduction.

Wirapol rejected the charges throughout, pleading not guilty when the case was examined at the Criminal Court and maintaining his denial through trial. The court found the victim's and her parents' testimony credible and the DNA evidence conclusive, and stated he deserved harsh punishment both because he had fled the country and because his conduct had damaged the image of the Buddhist faith he had claimed to represent.