Thailand: Buddhist monk convicted as ringleader of a temple-based trafficking ring targeting novice boys
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Buddhist monk using monastic and novice-guardianship authority
Organization
No organization assigned
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Monastic authority and the temple/novice-training structure were the organizing mechanism: victims were recruited as temple novices under religious guardianship, giving the trafficker custodial and spiritual authority used to procure and silence them.
- Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2015-03-16 · guilty plea and sentence
Thai courts (International Justice Mission-supported investigation). A Buddhist monk known as 'Pra Chai' used his temple position to procure and traffic teenage boys (15-17), including novices from struggling families, exploiting them sexually while using gifts and money to ensure silence. He pleaded guilty to human trafficking and exploitation of minors and was sentenced to 124 years, capped at 50 years under Thai law — the sixth monk convicted in the investigation.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- recruitment of temple novices under religious guardianship
- gifts and money to ensure silence
Cited record
Sources
- institutional reporting verdict report 'Alarm Bells Sounded Over Child Abuse in Thailand's Buddhist Temples', Buddhistdoor Global (2015).
Reports the conviction of the monk trafficking-ring leader and the pattern of temple-based abuse of novices in Thailand.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/alarm-bells-sounded-over-child-abuse-in-thailands-buddhist-temples/ Corpus classification: institutional-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-report.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
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