The Thailand railway worker who raped and killed a 13-year-old girl on an overnight train in July was sentenced to death today.
Wanchai Saengkhao, 22, who worked as a temporary train employee, was convicted of murder, raping a minor, concealing the body to hide the cause of death and other charges, reports The Associated Press.
Saengkhao admitted in court to taking the victim out of the bottom bunk where she was sleeping, killing her and throwing her body out a window of the moving train. Her naked body was found along the train tracks three days after the murder, according to AP reports.
The 13-year-old victim was traveling on a busy train route with commuters and her two sisters, ages 22 and 10, on their first train trip without a parent. The girls were traveling from their home in southern Thailand to Bangkok, the country's capital.
After the victim's sisters noticed she was gone a nationwide manhunt began.
Saengkhao was initially charged with rape and murder in July after the victim was found.
"Penalties for rape in Thailand range from a fine of up to 40,000 baht ($1,200) to life imprisonment or the death penalty but rape laws are rarely enforced," Reuters reports.
However, the violent nature of the crime and the public setting where it happened angered Thais and they rallied for a harsher rape penalty in the nation, reports Reuters.
Today Saengkhao was sentenced to death today for raping the 13-year-old on the train. His accomplice, a 19-year-old man, was also sentenced today to four years in prison, according to AP.
