Abbot lose appeal
Published on November 17, 2005
The Appeal Court yesterday upheld the 150-year jail term handed down to the former abbot of Nakhon Pathom’s Wat Samphran for raping underage hilltribe girls while he was in the monkhood.
However, Chamlong Konsue, 56, better known as Bhavana Buddho, will serve only 50 years, as that is the maximum sentence allowed under Thai law.
Chamlong, once a popular monk with many followers, was convicted of raping nine girls who were all participants in his project to adopt hilltribe children from Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces.
The Appeal Court also upheld jail terms of three to 31 years for six former nuns who were convicted by the Criminal Court for procuring the children between 1988 and 1995.
Chamlong was disrobed when the sexual offences came to light in 1995, after several of the girls’ parents complained to police. Prior to the two-hour court hearing yesterday, Chamlong, dressed in prison uniform, blessed 300 followers who had come to give their support to the former monk. During the ruling, many of them meditated or quietly prayed. On hearing the ruling, some followers broke into tears.