Police in Bangkok have arrested a 60-year-old man who allegedly pretended to be a transvestite recruiting beautiful young women for modelling jobs and raped about 100 of them.
Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, investigative chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said Sonthichai Yusuparp was arrested in a room in a slum community in Dusit district on Saturday.
According to the chief, the man was wanted for rape under a warrant issued by the Criminal Court on June 27.
Sonthichai had been arrested for 14 cases of rape in 2015, when he told police he had raped at least 100 women. His victims included government officials, company executives and bachelor's and master's degree students. The man was released from jail on May 20 last year.
The rapist always pretended to be a transvestite who was looking for beautiful women at shopping malls on weekends to recruit them for show business. He then brought victims to hotels for "casting" but actually raped them there.
Before being arrested again on Saturday, Sonthichai used the same trick with a woman at a music school in a shopping mall in Lat Phrao area. There he called himself Bua and convinced the victim to bring him to her condominium. When unable to rape the victim, he fled.
Before the arrest, detectives were looking for the man at shopping centres in Bangkok for about two weeks. Finally spotting him, they had a plainclothes policewoman approach him by pretending to look for a job in the entertainment business.
From 1992 to 2009, the man worked as a construction worker, truck driver, production worker, security guard and curtain installer. He changed both jobs and residences in the capital.every 1-5 months.
In 2009 he got to know a person in show business and then pretended to be a transvestite who worked as a modelling agent, Pol Maj Gen Theeradet said.
