BANGKOK: Three years ago, Chaiyapol Wipha (pic), who became known online as 'Uncle Pol', was seen holding the lifeless body of his three-year-old niece, Nong Chompu, and tearfully demanding justice.
Now, 1,316 days later, the Mukdahan court has found him guilty and slapped him with a 20-year jail term.
The high-profile case, which turned the tiny, remote village of Ban Kokkok in Mukdahan’s Don Luang district into a bustling town overnight, reached its peak when the court red its verdict at 9am on Wednesday (Dec 20).
Chaiyapol was found guilty on two counts – causing death to another person and taking a minor below the age of 15 away from the parents. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail for each count.
The court dismissed the third charge of tampering with the body to prevent accurate autopsy results.
The convict’s wife, Somporn Larbpho, an older sister of the victim’s mother, was also charged with tampering with the body but was acquitted.
Three-year-old Orawan “Chompoo” Wongsricha disappeared from her home on May 11, 2020, and her naked body was found in the Phu Pha Yon National Park on May 14, some 1.5km from her home.
The court began listening to testimonies on the case on June 20, 2022, as it took the police nearly two years to complete the investigation, which took this long due to the lack of strong evidence and witnesses.
By July 27, the court had listened to 47 prosecution and 20 defence witnesses.
The case has kept most Thais riveted, and at times has even affected the ratings of television soap operas as viewers are more interested in this case.
Due to the media presentation, the public became sympathetic towards Chaiyapol, especially after the victim’s parents aired suspicions that he may have been the one to abduct their child. The parents pointed out that the dog guarding the house did not bark and the child did not cry when she was carried away.
An autopsy found many wounds on the child’s body and genitals, but the hospital did not confirm if she was raped.
Yet, the soft-spoken uncle made people believe in him as he repeatedly declared his love for the child and kept insisting he could never harm her.
Yet, thanks to public support, Chaiyapol’s unfinished ramshackle house soon turned into a mansion and he became an overnight celebrity. A well-known TV and film producer even got him jobs as a model, singer and actor.
YouTubers began flocking to the little village to look for clues, which give the villagers a chance to earn a lot from either renting out land for camping or putting them up at their homes.
With some YouTubers camping there for months, many villagers also found a market for their fresh vegetables and fruits. Several new YouTube channels popped up reporting live from the village, while Chaiyapol himself set up a channel, so fans could watch him in real-time.
Television stations also dispatched teams to cover the developments at Ban Kokkok.
Amid all this drama, many reporters questioned whether the young girl could have climbed the steep mountain on her own, or if someone had taken her up there and left her to die.
In the first two months, the online world was divided, with one side branding Chaiyapol as the killer and the other side just seeing him as an “innocent man”.
Several TV stations also recorded his daily activities and by July 9, while social media users launched the #SaveUnclePol hashtag.
When Chaiyapol launched his YouTube channel on Aug 16, he won thousands of subscribers. He starred in a music video with popular folk singer Jintara Poonlarp on Aug 30, and it won more than 2 million views in just two days.
However, during the height of Chaiyapol’s popularity, some of his leading supporters began deserting him after noticing some irregularities.
The court, meanwhile, based its ruling on surrounding evidence. It pointed out that it was impossible for a three-year-old to walk 1.5km and then climb up a steep mountain. The court also noted that the child’s older sister was minding the child from 9am and some 50 minutes later, she found her younger sibling had disappeared. The older girl said she did not hear the child cry at all.
This led to prosecutors believing that she may have been taken away by someone known to her.
Investigators spoke to 14 close relatives and found that all except Chaiyapol had alibis. The court said Chaiyapol was not able to prove his whereabouts at the time when the girl disappeared.
The court also noted that Chaiyapol knew of the child’s disappearance even before he returned home, which it said would have been impossible if he had not been involved in the disappearance.
Though Chaiyapol told police that his wife had called to tell him about the disappearance, the court pointed out that the man did not own a mobile phone at the time. The two families shared one phone, and it was at home at the time.
The court also noted that Chaiyapol had told a monk at 10am that his niece had disappeared, though he was outside at the time.
The verdict also said that Chaiyapol had tried to convince a witness to tell the police that he was at a rubber plantation nearby since 7am, instead of being near the child’s house at around the time she disappeared. The court took this as the suspect trying to conceal his wrongdoing.
The court also said hair found in Chiayapol’s pickup truck matched the child’s DNA. - The Nation/ANN
