Woman rubber tapper arrested for abandoning baby in Phuket

PHUKET: A Myanmar woman has been tracked down in Surat Thani and charged with abandoning her young baby behind a Krungthai Bank branch in Patong area of Kathu district in Phuket on Sept 23.

The baby was in a bag left on a bench. The boy’s crying drew the attention of Ratchanee Berit, 68, who was jogging on the beach nearby. She reported it to Patong police.

Pol Lt Col Sarit Butnongsaeng, deputy chief of Patong police, said  security camera footage showed a  woman, wearing a black face mask, red shirt with long sleeves and a skirt walk out of soi Eden, on Rat Uthis 200 Years road, carrying a bag, which she placed on a bench behind Krungthai Bank’s Patong branch and then left.

Myanmar migrants who lived in the soi told police the woman was a former employee of Royal Palace Restaurant & Tour, an Indian food restaurant on Rat Uthis 200 Years road. The restaurant owner identified her as Ei Ei Phyu.

Investigators learned that on Sept 22 the woman took a van from Surat Thani to Phuket. From the bus terminal, she took a motorcycle taxi to Patong, where she stayed overnight with a friend.

On Sept 23, about 5.30am, she walked to the bench behind the bank and left the bag with her baby in it. She then went to the 2nd bus terminal in tambon Ratsada, Muang district, and boarded a bus to Surat Thani.

The bus driver told police she got off in front of a 7-Eleven store at kilometre marker 25, near Bang Madua police station in Surat Thani.

Residents in that area said the woman gave birth to the baby at Tha Rong Chang hospital in Phun Phin district, Surat Thani, on Sept 9.

On Monday, Ms Ei Ei was arrested at a rubber plantation in tambon Tapan in Phun Phin district, where she worked as a tapper.

She allegedly confessed to abandoning her baby son in Phuket. She said she was not in a position to raise the child.

She was detained at Patong police station in Phuket, pending legal action.

Source: Bangkok Post
Published on 29 Sept 2020
Link: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1993663/woman-rubber-tapper-arrested-for-abandoning-baby-in-phuket