A Thai man, who was arrested in September for sexually assaulting a US woman, had his 10 years prison sentence shortened by half because he pleaded guilty in the case.
The Thai local who had been identified as 27-year-old Apai Ruengvorn had sexually assaulting and masturbated atop 23-year-old Hannah Gavios, a New York-based teacher, was holidaying in Thailand when the incident took place.
According to reports, Gavios’ mother had slammed the court’s decision to shorten Ruengvorn’s sentence and said that her daughter would suffer for the rest of her life because of what had happened.
Gavious had broken her back after she fell from the 150ft cliff during a bid to save herself from the sexual predator, but to her horror, he found her again and performed sexual acts on her, as she lay helpless on the ground.
Unlike many victims of sexual assault, Gavious chose not to hide her identity and gave the media a blow-by-blow detail of what had happened.
Recalling the fateful day, Gavious said it all started when she got lost in Thailand’s Railay Beach and sought help at a nearby tourist shop to get back to her hotel. It was then that Ruengvorn offered to help her, but little did she know his true intentions and he soon waylaid her into a jungle instead of leading her to safety.
Gavious said she was too tired to think and realised that she was being led to danger too late.
'I really thought I was going to die,' she said.
'I didn't get the best feeling about him but I was tired and wanted to get home. I'd been travelling for 16 hours so I guess I wasn't feeling myself,' Gavios recalled.
She remembered asking him repeatedly if they were on the right way. As they continued walking, he suddenly grabbed her and tried to take her clothes off.
"I started punching him in the face and beating him up and biting off his ear. I was biting his ear so hard it almost came off. His ear was half torn off," she said.
"He was in pain and asked me to stop, so we shook hands and he stopped but I was still nervous and he was still trying to harass me so there was no choice but to run. I started walking back to where I came from. Once there was distance between us I started running."
The jungle was pitch black and she could hardly see anything, but she did not have the time to think and as she continued to run, she soon found herself falling from a cliff.
“It was pitch black and before I knew it I was in mid air falling off a cliff. I was honestly thinking I wouldn't survive,” she said.
“I hit my head a few times and landed with a big bump. I was screaming in pain. It was the most painful thing ever. I felt like a total vegetable. I felt completely vulnerable. I couldn't move anything.”
Ruengvorn, found his way back to her and proceeded to sexually molest her, while she lay injured and motionless from the pain.
'I was stuck with this crazy person. I was in the woods in the bushes with wild snakes crawling on me while he was still continuing to harass me. He got on top of me. He took of his pants and masturbated on me,” she said.
Gavious was grievously injured and had broken her spine due to the fall, she kept begging Ruengvorn to call for help, but he did not listen to her, not a first at least.
“I honestly didn't know what to do. I just had to remain calm. whenever I screamed he was choking me so I had to try to keep cool and stay friendly with him. As soon as it got lighter I started calling for help. He kept saying "no police no police," Gavios said.
After some time, Ruengvorn left the spot, but to Gavios’ relief, he came back with other people who rescued her and admitted her to a hospital.
Ruengvorn later confessed to his crime and was arrested for sexually assaulting Gavios.
