Thread: Thai Jack the Lipper sentenced to Death

Death for 'Jack the ripper'
By Kesinee Taengkhieo
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- Somkid Pumpoung, called by the media as "Thailand's Jack the Ripper" after he allegedly robbed and killed five sex workers, yesterday was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of a two-month-pregnant traditional Thai massage therapist.
Somkid Phumphuang, called "Jack the Ripper" by the media after he allegedly robbed and killed five sex workers, yesterday was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of a two-month-pregnant traditional Thai massage therapist.

The Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court said Somkid strangled Pongpan Sapchai in a Lampang hotel room and made off with her valuables worth Bt5,000.
He reportedly confessed but during the trial denied the homicide charge, claiming that police had bullied him.

Somkid, 41, already faces capital punishment for the murder of a Mukdahan cafe singer and life imprisonment for the murder of a traditional masseuse in Buri Ram. This was the third murder case against him.
After the verdict, Somkid criticised the judges, to which the court replied he could appeal. Turning to his attorney to berate him for doing a bad job, Somkid was told by a prosecutor to lower his voice. Somkid told the lawyer rudely to leave him alone and had to dragged away

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/loca...-serial-killer

Another life sentence for serial killer

• Published: 28/04/2011 at 12:57 PM
• Online news:

Somkid Phumphuang, dubbed "Thailand's Jack the Ripper", was on Thursday sentenced by the Criminal Court to life for the murder of a masseuse at a hotel in Muang district of Udon Thani province in June 2005.

This is the last of the five murder cases in which Somkid was found guilty by the Criminal Court.

In this case, the Criminal Court found Somkid, 47, guilty of murdering Porntawan Pungkhabut, a masseuse, in a room of the Charoensri Grand Royal Hotel in Muang district of Udon Thani on June 18, 2005.

The masseuse was found strangled to death in the hotel room where she spent the night with Somkid, who left the hotel without paying the bill and took with him some of his victim's belongings.

The court initially sentenced Somkid to death, but the sentence was commuted to life due to his confession.


Somkid Phumphuang, aka Thailand's Jack the Ripper (Photo by Surapol Promsaka na Sakolnakorn)

Somkid was earlier found guilty by the court of murdering four other women in 2005: Warunee Phimphabut, 25, a nightclub singer, at a hotel in Mukdahan province on Jan 30; Phongphan Sabchai, 34, a masseuse, in Lampang on June 2; Patcharee Amatanirum, 38, a singer, in Trang on June 11; and Sompong Pimpornpirom, 36, a masseuse, in Buri Ram on June 20.

Somkid was sentenced to death in all five cases. The death sentences in four cases were commuted to life because of his confession, but not for the murder of the masseuse in Lampang.

The victims were all massage parlour and nightclub workers. In each case their personal effects had also been stolen from the hotel rooms where their bodies were found.

Somkid was arrested on June 29, 2005 at the house of his wife in Chaiyaphum province.