Motel lovebird charged with extortion

Police tell the media in Phetchabun province late on Tuesday that Narongrit Reekuai (light blue shirt) made up his story of being secretly videoed at a love motel with his girlfriend. (Photo by Soonthorn Khongwarakhom)

PHETCHABUN: A man who told police a video taken without his knowledge of him having sex with a girlfriend at a love motel had been posted online has been charged with laying a false complaint and attempted extortion.

Narongrit Reekuai, a 34-year-old employee of a commercial bank in Khao Kho district, was charged late on Tuesday.

Earlier that day, the man told police at Muang Phetchabun station that he and his girlfriend had been videoed without their knowledge when they had sex at a local motel, and he later found a clip of their amorous activities posted on social media.

He showed them a copy he said he had downloaded on his mobile phone.

Pol Lt Col Sitthinant Sitthikamjon, deputy superintendent of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, said police inspected the motel and examined the video clip, and finally concluded the man's complaint was groundless.

He did not have the same marks on his body as the videoed couple, and their faces were unclear. Besides, the sound on the clip was women's voices, not the voices of the man and his girlfriend as he claimed, Pol Lt Col Sitthinant said.

Police suspected him of trying to extort the motel operator.

Mr Narongrit denied the extortion charge. He said he had no such an intention, he already had a permanent job. He simply mistook the people in the clip for himself and his girlfriend because they had visited the same motel.