PREGNANT 14-YEAR-OLD FOUND HANGED IN CELL

A 14-year-old girl, arrested for peddling drugs, committed suicide by
hanging herself with a towel inside a cell at a Phya Thai police station on
Wednesday night, police said yesterday.

But despite a suicide note, the girl's mother demanded an investigation
into why her daughter, who was three months pregnant, was alone in the cell
and in the possession of a towel and a pen.

"I don't want to believe that she killed herself," said Chaweewan (last
name withheld). "I don't understand why a 14-year-old girl was left alone
in a police cell, or how she managed to get hold of a towel and a pen."

A police committee has been set up to investigate the circumstances.

But the Phya Thai police chief, Colonel Karun Klinprayoon, insisted that
the "suicide note" was written in the girl's own handwriting.

It read: "Dear Mother, let me prostrate before your feet for one last time.
I love you so much. I'm sorry for everything that I have done to you. I
can't actually be there to touch your feet but let these words do so for
me. Please take care of my kid brother and sisters. I love you. I wish I am
born your daughter again in the next life."

The latter part of the message was addressed to her boyfriend. It said: "To
'My' my dearest, I will be gone now so please be good. Find a new
girlfriend who's better than me, someone who loves you and is good to you.
I just want to tell you how much I love you and care about you. Your wife."

Kanya (not her real name) was arrested on Wednesday evening at Centre One
department store near Victory Monument while she was singing inside a
karaoke cabin.

Police said she had been peddling amphetamines and was the target of a
sting operation last October but she narrowly escaped on a getaway motorcycle.

She was put in a juvenile cell at the police station but was found dead a
few hours later with the towel wrapped around her neck and attached to the
iron bars. The suicide note was written on a toothpaste box.

"It's her own handwriting," reiterated Karun. Another officer at the
station, Lt-Colonel Smit Nannaruemit, said the towel had been given to the
girl by a male inmate who thought she would use it to dry her tears.

The girl and her mother were arrested in 2002 when police found amphetamine
pills in their homes. The woman was jailed for one year while her daughter
was sent to a juvenile centre.

"After we got out of jail, she told me she was clean and would never get
involved with drugs again," Chaweewan said.

An autopsy was conducted and there were no signs of physical assault or
that she was murdered, officials said.

Thana Benjathikul, the secretary-general of the Law Society of Thailand,
criticised Phya Thai police for being negligent in their detention of young
suspects.

"In other countries they are very serious about things that can be allowed
in the cells like that but we have seen a lot of suicide cases in Thai
prisons," he said.

Monthathip Poo

Napanisa Kaewmorakot