Col Kaitong Jantongbai of Phuket City police held a press conference today (April 7) to announce the arrest of Somsak Yakap, 38.
The incident allegedly happened on Friday at the Summer Hotel in Talad Yai, where Somsak was taking care of the boy Nopparat, nicknamed Bow.
Somsak told the boy’s mother that Bow had fallen off the bed. He took the child to Vachira Phuket Hospital, where Bow later died.
The boy’s mother, Montha “Dow̕” Pimchaisri, went to the Phuket City police the same day, accusing Somsak of assaulting her child.
She told police that Somsak had taken the toddler last Tuesday (March 31) to look after him while she was at work and was supposed to bring him back the following day. He didn̕t.
On Thursday (April 2), Montha told Somsak’s girlfriend, a friend of hers, to go check at the hotel. The friend reported that the baby was with Somsak and was fine.
On Friday afternoon Montha said she received a call saying Bow had fallen off the bed and had been taken to hospital. He had bruises on his body and a blood clot on the brain.
Phuket Provincial Court issued an arrest warrant for Somsak, who works as a motorcycle taxi driver.
When police could not find him they convinced Somsak’s girlfriend to contact him and ask him to come in for questioning.
Somsak had been hiding out in the Thepkrasattri area but yesterday handed himself in to police.
At the press conference he told a different tale.
“She always asked me to take care of Bow. It had been four or five times already. Sometimes it was as long as a week before she came to pick him up.
“His mother used to live next door to me and we were close as neighbours. He was a good boy and I liked him. I treated him just like my own kid and he was quite attached to me.
“I remember that the mother even said she would give Bow to me as my son if I paid her B20,000.”
He said that the day the boy fell from the bed he had to go out to try to reconcile with his wife and a three-year-old daughter who had left him following a fight.
“I went out to see my wife and daughter for around half an hour, leaving the boy alone in my room.
“After I had talked to my wife I came back to the room with a friend and found Bow laying face down on the floor. When I checked he was still breathing, but barely, so I took him to Vachira Hospital. I later found out he had died,” Somsak said.
He denied hitting the baby and insisted that he knew nothing about bruises. However, he did confess that he sometimes used krathom.
“I do not know how the bruises got on his body but I have never hurt him before. If I had hurt him, his mother would not have left him with me like this.”
Police also revealed today that they have received an autopsy report confirming that Bow was not the victim of sexual assault.
See earlier story here.