A big-bike riding riot policeman facing multiple charges after killing a doctor on a zebra crossing left the monkhood with his father after attending the victim's cremation on Wednesday.
Pol L/Cpl Norawich Buadok and his father, Pol Sub Lt Nikom, returned to being laymen at a ceremony at Wat Pariwat Ratchasongkram in Yannawa district of Bangkok.
The pair disrobed on their return to Wat Pariwat after attending the royally-sponsored cremation of Waraluck Supawatjariyakul, an ophthalmologist in the faculty of medicine at Chulalongkorn University, at Wat Phra Sri Mahathat in Bang Khen district.
Dr Waraluck was killed when Pol L/Cpl Norawich, riding a Ducati motorcycle, struck her while she was on a zebra crossing on Phaya Thai Road n Ratchathewi district on Friday.
The incident angered the public as video footage showed the biker made no attempt to stop at the crossing.
The doctor was killed three days before her 34th birthday, and family members, friends and well-wishers sang 'Happy Birthday' in front of her coffin at Wat Phra Sri Mahathat on Monday.
They returned to the temple on Wednesday to bid her a final farewell.
"This is the last time for the family to send her to heaven," her father, Dr Anirut, said. "It will take some time for all the family members to recover (from the loss) and adjust to life without her."
Like the late Dr Waraluck, her father and sister are ophthalmologists. Dr Anirut, now retired, said he and his younger daughter would carry on her determination to help patients suffering from eye problems.
Pol L/Cpl Norawich was under pressure to leave the monkhood after the National Office of Buddhism opposed his ordination due to the charges against him.
His father said after disrobing that they would to continue to wear all-white outfits and observe the precepts at home for another three days to honour the late doctor.
Police have pressed seven charges against the killer cop.
Pol Maj Gen Jirasant Kaewsaeng-ek, the spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said at Wat Phra Si Mahathat that police would consider another charge of violating the speed limit if the bike is found to have been travelling at more than 80 kilometres per hour.
