Tourist jailed after fabricating Thai gang rape claim

**frostyboy** · 20th-July-2008

From 2003: Tourist jailed after fabricating Thai gang rape claim

A Hong Kong tourist has been sentenced to 18 months in jail by a Thai court, after confessing to fabricating a claim she was gang raped in Bangkok earlier this month.

So Leong-Ying, 27, claimed she was raped by the driver of a "tuk-tuk" three-wheeled taxi and three other men outside parliament on June 3.

A Thai tuk-tuk driver was arrested but freed after police found no proof of her claim.

The woman later admitted inventing the incident, saying she had been drunk and hoped to write a novel based on her story of being attacked.

Leong-Ying was charged on three counts: filing a false complaint with police, defamation of the tuk-tuk driver and falsely testifying in court.

"The court initially convicted her on all three charges to three years in prison, but as she confessed the court halved her sentence to one year and six months," an official said.

The convicted woman has 30 days to file an appeal with the Court of Appeals.

Leong-Ying may also face civil charges from Thai police, who have threatened to sue her for 10 million baht ($US241,000) on the grounds that her hoax story severely tarnished their image.

Tourism Minister Sonthaya Khunploem has also threatened to sue her for the damage he claims she has wreaked on Thailand's tourism image.

**yohan** · 20th-July-2008

In Thailand it is applicable to both, men and women, if confessing, to serve only the half of the sentence.
Most of those convicted people are into drugs however. Thai prisons are overcrowded.

3 years sounds a bit better than some hours of community service in the Western world.

I do not think, the financial claims will ever be accepted by a Thai court, and if yes, with a very much lower sum. Something is wrong with this reported sum of 10 million baht..