A woman was handed the death penalty on Thursday for poisoning her two children, including one count of murder, and posting images of them looking sick online to solicit donations.
The Criminal Court sentenced Nattiwan Rakkunjet to death after her indictment was recommended by prosecutors.
The court was told Nattiwan adopted one of the children, a girl then aged 4, on April 22, 2015. From the time of her adoption, Nattiwan fed the girl with food laced with mildly corrosive liquid. Over time, the girl became gravely ill and vomited blood caused by damage to her gastrointestinal tract. She was often admitted to hospital and died on Aug 12, 2019.
Nattiwan also gave poisoned meals to her own son beginning when he was 2 years old in September 2017 until May 2020. He too developed a critical illness.
She took photos of the children being sick and posted them on her Facebook account to draw online donations, which she received in large quantities.
Nattiwan was arrested on May 18, 2020.
She was charged and found guilty of human trafficking for using children to solicit donations, murder and attempted murder, committing fraud and putting fraudulent information into a computer system.
She confessed on account of the overwhelming evidence against her and for that reason, her confession was not considered grounds for a reduced sentence, according to the court. The court also ordered Nattiwan to return 42,000 baht worth of donations she received while the mobile phones she bought with the donations were confiscated.
