PATHUM THANI: When it comes to traditional Thai massage, some like it harder than others.
But few people suffering from stiffness or poor circulation want to emerge from massage treatment looking as if they had just gone five hard rounds in a Muay Thai fight – which was the type of service a renegade massage parlor in Pathum Thani had been offering before it was closed down by the local health officials.
Following a September 16 raid by health officials and a 10-man police unit, the facility, offering both traditional Thai massage and medical treatments, was shut down.
Its owner, 46-year-old Surapon Hattapornsuwan (whose last name means “gifted hands”), and four other employees were taken into custody on charges that included operating an unregistered business and practicing medicine without a license.
One customer, 40-year-old Somchai Srisang, was quoted as saying, “I was recommended by friends to visit the parlor because I was suffering from respiratory problems and had trouble breathing. They said a massage treatment and herbal therapy would put me right.
“When I got there, K. Surapon took my pulse and declared that I was suffering from an allergy. He told me he would be happy to treat me for free, though he asked me to put a donation in a collection box to help pay for the facility’s rent.”
It was not reported just how much, if anything, K. Somchai “donated” for his free treatment, but one must suspect it was a bit on the low side, because after he lay on the massage bed, K. Surapong proceeded to stamp on his chest then hit him in the head until he was covered in welts and bruises.
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Banged to rights
NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: As 40-year-old Somsak Chinaphan sat in front of a mom and pop store in Phibul District on October 27, local police turned up and placed him under arrest for rape.
Accompanying the arresting officials, and boldly pointing the finger of blame, was his ex-wife and mother of their three children, 38-year-old Somreudee Chinaphan.
K. Somsak, the owner of a local rubber plantation, told police that he had been framed. He said the problem started when, after 10 years of marriage, his wife found out he was having an affair with a much younger woman.
This resulted in an argument that saw the couple officially divorce. The once-happy couple then separated, K. Somsak and the couple’s oldest boy going to live with K. Somsak’s mother, and K. Somreudee keeping the two younger daughters.
But after a month apart, one of the daughters kept begging them to get back together. Eventually they did, and a sort of truce was established – though the couple continued to trade barbs from time to time.
Then one night, a school-age girl appeared on the doorstep, looking for K. Somsak. This ripped open the old wound, sending K. Somreudee into a jealous rage. K. Somsak did his best to calm her down, and must have thought he had succeeded when K. Somreudee agreed to sleep with him.
After a round of what K. Somsak thought was “make-up sex”, K. Somreudee left the house on her motorcycle. K. Somsak thought little of it, assuming she had probably just gone off to run an errand.
But rather than go to market, K. Somreudee went straight to the police and filed rape charges. She must have been aware that because they weren’t officially married anymore, K. Somsak was no longer protected by Thai law, which forbids wives from filing rape charges against husbands.
Paperwork completed, K. Somreudee was then examined at Phibul Hospital, where doctors confirmed she had been penetrated.
The smoking gun came in the form samples of fresh semen taken from her vagina. It seems that the clever K. Somreudee now had her former husband where she wanted him: banged to rights.
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Pricey pawing
PATHUM THANI: Udomdech Rattanasathien, Secretary to Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, led a team of department officials and police on a raid at another dubious treatment facility, also in Phatum Thani, on October 7.
This raid followed complaints by a female patient that she had been sexually assaulted during treatment – by a well-known monk.
The woman said her treatment by 51-year-old monk Phra Atikarnwinat Jittomano consisted of little more than being petted in a lewd manner, having her breasts fondled and being asked if she had menstruated. Adding insult to injury, she was also charged 3,000 baht or 4,000 baht a session.
The treatment facility, in a shophouse in Klong Luang district, was billed as the Taksila Traditional Thai Medicine Clinic.
All was going well until the inspection team arrived armed with a warrant. Phra Atikarnwinat and the clinic’s employees were charged with practicing medicine without a license. The investigation is now trying to determine if Phra Atikarnwinat, whose dhamma teachings are carried by several local radio stations, used his broadcasts as a form of advertising for the clinic.
Phra Atikarnwinat at first denied that lewd and obscene behavior was part of his treatment, but his face went ashen when investigators played a covertly-recorded videotape of one of his treatment sessions.