Homepage > Thai Youth Issues > A chilling tale of confession - with no regret

Date: 1st November 2000, The Nation

THE incident, which happened five years ago, was gruesome and shocking: an 11-year-old boy beat a four-year-old boy to death in order to steal his younger playmate's bicycle that his family could not afford.

The murder has left permanent scars on everyone concerned, with soul-searching questions that have yet to be answered.

The victim's father, Boonsom Klai-in, feels that justice has never been served for what he sees as a nonsensical murder. "Why did my son have to die so that another boy could satisfy his greed?" he wonders to this day.

For the 16-year-old who grows up knowing he has taken a friend's life, life has become much more difficult.

The teenager is finding it hard to integrate into society, sensing as he does that everyone in the community still holds him accountable for the murder.

But while he has completed three years' rehabilitation, he says the murder of his young playmate was "just something that happened" and shows no remorse for his action. Looking back on the horrible event, he says that at the time he could not appreciate the magnitude or the possible consequences of his crime.

Meanwhile members of the public are still grappling with the question of whether they can accept a young man who has killed as a boy.

Although crimes committed by minors are expunged from their records, a large segment of the public argues that even children who act on their feelings in a premeditated way should be held legally accountable for their actions.

On the afternoon of September 9, 1995, two boys were playing alone in the woods near the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi.

The initial scene might have appeared idyllic to anyone passing by. The two boys were riding towards the river on the same bicycle, belonging to the younger boy. Close friends, they were planning to go fishing.

No one could have imagined what would happen next.

"As we arrived at a small stream, we dismounted, and I walked on ahead of Tong," the teenager said, in a chilling admission of his crime. "As Tong was walking behind with his bicycle, I don't know why, I had a sudden urge to have it, so I picked up a piece of wood and hit Tong several times on the head and face. I wanted him dead so I could take his bicycle."

The teenager recounted that after beating his younger friend to death, he buried him and dismantled the bicycle in order to hide it. He said he intended to return and reassemble the bicycle once talk about Tong's disappearance had died down.

But he would never ride "that" bicycle again, because Boonsom, Tong's father, confronted him about the boy's disappearance.

"I didn't want to confess, but they found Tong's body and the hidden bicycle parts. Witnesses also saw me and Tong leave for the woods together," he said.

At the time of his arrest, he said he could not understand the angry reaction of the people in his community.

"I knew I had just done something. But bygones should be bygones. I knew that I wanted that bicycle so bad I could kill for it," he said.

Looking back in retrospect, he said that he probably should have tried to buy the bicycle instead of killing his friend.

Boonsom says his son died in vain as the killer only spent three years in a juvenile detention centre.

During rehabilitation, the teenager said, he spent most of his time completing primary education.

Following his release two years ago he moved to Samut Prakan and worked briefly as a petrol-station attendant. Then, haunted by his past, he quit his job and moved in with his mother and stepfather in a remote area of Kanchanaburi.

He said he still could not return to his old community where the murder took place.

Today he earns a meagre living as a construction worker, although he prefers to spend most of his time hunting alone in the woods.

"I like the mountain air, and I want to get over my past," he says.

BY BENJAWAN SOMSIN

The Nation