Perth man 'innocent' of Thai rape

[Nereus]

Now here's something that should get your hackles up, regardless of whether or not he is innocent.
91 years old? I doubt that he can even pee properly any longer. But to suggest that the parents may be trying to extort money from him is a bit over the odds.


Perth man 'innocent' of Thai rape

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... thai-rape/

A 91-year-old WA man who is charged with raping four young sisters in Thailand has protested his innocence, speaking out for the first time since his arrest eight months ago.

Karl Joseph Kraus is accused of luring the girls - one of whom was five when the alleged abuse began - to his home near the northern city of Chiang Mai with chocolates and English lessons.

Mr Kraus, who is in Thailand awaiting trial, said yesterday he had spoken out because he believed the Thai authorities were dragging out his case.

"I waited for a long time before I started to complain," he said. "I say 'bring me before a court'. At my age, I just don't have any ambitions or things to do with sex. I can hardly walk any more."

Mr Kraus said some of the alleged victims did go to his house with other children and their parents, but they were never alone. The widower said he had been inviting children and their parents to his house in Mae Kue twice a year - on his birthday and at Christmas - for 15 years.

"They came never alone," he wrote in a letter to _The West Australian _. "It is a custom in Thailand that children go visiting friends with their parents."

Mr Kraus said he was respected in Mae Kue - an expensive estate in Doi Saket district of Chiang Mai - and accused the alleged victims' father of trying to extort money from him. The girls' parents allege their daughters, now aged between eight and 15, were raped at Mr Kraus' home on occasions between December 2009 and last June.

Mr Kraus has prostate cancer and said he desperately needed to come to Australia for treatment.

His son Charlie, who lives in Perth, said yesterday the charges were "ridiculous" and his father was supported by his family and other Mae Kue villagers.

Mr Kraus, who migrated from Germany in 1951, has lived in Thailand for the past 15 years. He said on his arrest on June 29 he was dragged into jail because he could not walk, into a cell with 40 others. He lay in pain there for five days.

Mr Kraus said he paid 450,000 baht ($14,668) to get bail but no trial date had been set.

[PeteC]

Everyone here is not equal under the law regardless of that scrap they call the constitution. This is another case, probably, of a Thai thinking he is smart and taking advantage of knowing that the police will believe him and not the foreigner. We'll get some money out of him they chuckled, as they drew lots as to each others cut.

Someone should perhaps start talking about an official Foreigner's Advocacy Office here, as the embassies never seem to want to get involved. If the Thai government is serious about equality and stopping corruption, they should set one up. But then again, they at present have an Interior Minister who openly states he doesn't like Westerners, nor does he sign permanent residency papers of successful applicants so I read. Pete

[Spitfire]

Dragging a 91 year old to jail and leaving him in a jail cell with 40 others for five days after just an accusation is a disgrace, they should be ashamed of their indifference and racism.

Then you read how a Thai brat in daddy's car cuts a girl in half, flees the scene and then decides to surrender to the police at his convenience because it's more important to visit a festival first.

As for that joke that calls himself a minister, why don't they just make it official that foreigners are not welcome here and rename him as the....

Minister for Implementing Racism and the Obstruction/Persecution of Non Indigenous People

[Takiap]

Well, if you ask me, even a total idiot would know they are simply trying to get money out of the old man. I really doubt a 91 year old man would be guilty of such charges, and the fact that the police even responded in the way they did, shows you don't need to be the brightest kid on the block to land a job. Of course as Pete has pointed out, it's Thai against farang, so he could find himself in trouble. With that said, I do like to believe that the judges here have at least some self respect.

[T.I.G.R.]

Takiap -

Having had our day in court last year I have to say you're giving them too much credit. Theirs is not a "justice system", it's a joke. At the moment a very bad joke in my opinion.

Eventually Thailand, along with many other old fashioned caste systems, will find it's way to a real form of fair and honest government.........probably a long time after we're all dead though.

[Spitfire]

Eventually Thailand, along with many other old fashioned caste systems, will find it's way to a real form of fair and honest government.........probably a long time after we're all dead though.

Maybe so, but it will have to wait until the crusty dinosaurs die, as that seems to be the only way to get them out of office, and then the younger generation that have lived in the real world/21st century will have some influence on matters in general.

A good example of what's wrong with these police generals, and others in positions such as, is that they can't be retired from it apart from through death, look at the ads you see on the road ad boards on the highway about stuff the cops want to announce/enforce. All you see is some crusty cop general that is about 90 wagging his finger about something and has only got out of his wheelchair for the photo op to try to scare the underlings/living daylights out of the public etc into submission through the fact that he is some fossil with so much fruit salad on his uniform that we should all be impressed and submit to his ridiculous vanity.

I could go on and on and on but it would end up being deleted, so will stop here.