By johnnywishbone , August 24, in Central Thailand Forum. How appalling that the law is involved in something that is, in countless situations, a rite of passage. How did the girl's parents get to know? Did he make her pregnant? If so, that is stupidity writ large.
Or did she tell them it was rape? In which case, it is a serious charge. Honestly, I don't understand why the legal system gets involved with teenage fumblings, it's none of their concern - chances are that the majority of judges will have been through the same scenario themselves anyway, but now they are lawmakers, they get all prim about it. Ok, if the guy was 60, it would be cause for concern, but 16? Bloody hell, that's just normal. Section explicitly states that sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 15 who is not the wife or husband shall be liable for imprisonment from four to twenty years.
Children cannot consent to sexual intercourse and it is not an excuse. Get your head examined, a girl from 14 years old should not have sex.
In reality, most of these cases will be sorted out at the village level. Now it has gone to court, it has become unstoppable and will play out to the end unless the lad's side has some phoo yai connections, which I don't think he has. You'll never see your bail money again and expect more calls for cash attached to a variety of colourful reasons. I'm not up on Thai law, but since the boy is a minor, he shouldn't be treated as an adult for sentencing purposes.
My village experience of this wife's distant cousin is where the girls family is not happy, the boys family will need to pay compensation. The boy here had to find 1 million baht compensation no farang involvement or go to jail.
