An assistant undertaker assigned to prepare for funeral rites the body of a woman he had been courting admitted having sex with the corpse and is being sought by police, officials said on Wednesday.
The suspect, Sakchai Thammasida (51) left a note on Monday to the parents of the 31-year-old woman, apologising for his actions, before fleeing the Buddhist temple in Samut Prakan, 30 kilometres
east of Bangkok, where the funeral was to take place.
Sakchai was reported to have been courting the woman before she contracted the HIV virus and died of Aids.
He was assigned to dress her in preparation for her funeral at Samut Prakan’s Wat Thongkhoong, but relatives discovered that her coffin had been damaged and her body left naked after being violated, according to monks at the temple.
The relatives also found a note signed by Sakchai in which he admitted violating the corpse and asked for forgiveness from the woman’s parents.
Samut Prakan Police Captain Sangchai Laoroongreungkit said Sakchai could not be charged with rape but would be charged with damaging temple property, which is punishable by a three-month jail term or a fine of 6 000 baht ($143). – Sapa-DPA