Two students apologise for drunkenly propositioning women and attacking man

 | Tue 1 Sep 2020 12:33 ICT

Early yesterday we published a news story about two young women who were riding home on their motorbike over the weekend when they were propositioned by two men who then proceeded to get violent with a friend of theirs who happened by.

The incident occurred late Saturday night as the women drove back from Mae Jo towards the city. Two men began to proposition them, offering 200 baht for sex before becoming aggressive and throwing ice at them. A male friend happened to have stopped at the same intersection and intervened, attempting to talk the two men down. The two men allegedly attacked the male friend, before driving off. According to the victims, the two men had in fact waited further up the road for them to catch up before getting involved in another altercation, seeing them ride their motorbike into the male friend before riding off.

The women and their friend reported the incident and earlier today police said that the two men would be called in for questioning.

Later in the day the two men, 18 and 19 years old, both students at a local college, answered police request to go to Sansai police where they met the two women who were on the motorbike, both 23. They both apologised to all three victims, thanking them for not pressing charges, and promising that they will not be behaving this way again. They also agreed to pay all medical costs for the man, who had minor injuries.

The two men explained that they were very drunk that night and were on the way to buy more ice to go into their whisky. They said that they only were teasing the women, and had no real intention to proposition or harm them. They said that when the women wouldn’t return their banter and the male friend began to talk to them aggressively, they became angry. They went on to say that they had no intention of carrying on with the altercation, but they heard the male victim and the women shouting taunts at them at the u-turn and decided to stop. Both say that they didn’t mean to insult the women or offer them money for sex, but that they feel very bad and have now learnt their lesson.

The police chief of Mae Jo station told reporters that this was an incident caused by drunkenness which got out of control. He said that overall Mae Jo had few problems, but there were always issues with drunken youths who can’t control their behaviour. He went on to say that had the incident not been posted and widely shared on social media, police would not have been alerted to the matter, urging the public to contact the police should such incidents occur. In spite of the victims not pressing charges, he said that he will be laying down the charge against the driver of the motorbike of ‘harming others but without risk of bodily or emotional injury’ which comes with up to one year in jail and or a 10,000 baht fine. There will be no charges against the second man, but a negotiated 1,000 baht fine.