Thai students claim sex abuse and rip-off

By ANDREW PERRIN IN BANGKOK, and CATHERINE MASTERS

They came to New Zealand on a summer trip to learn English.

They were promised the sights of Auckland, a trip to Queenstown, their own beds and a comfortable homestay.

Instead, 14 young Thais found themselves sleeping on the floor of a state house in Mangere. Instead of receiving English tuition at top language schools, they were dropped off at malls to fend for themselves.

Some of the younger boys now say they were sexually abused by the Thai businessman their parents paid to look after them.

One miserable, stormy night, three 11-year-old Thai boys were found by their friends huddled in a Mangere telephone box, weeping.

They had not been able to call their parents for help because they did not speak enough English to talk to the operator.

They told a Thai student who found them that the "master" had done something terrible to them.

The "master" is Saharat Sakulpanarak, a 40-year-old Thai man arrested for fraud in Thailand after the April "summer tour".

He has also been charged with credit card fraud in New Zealand.

This is the language tour that appeared on the front page of a Thai newspaper, the Nation, headlined "Nightmare in New Zealand".

The English language industry was worth $1.4 billion last year, and attracted 52,000 fee-paying overseas students to New Zealand.

Most in the industry say it is controlled and professional, but Saharat managed to slip through.

He promised the parents of the students that their children, aged 11 to 22, would live in a large, clean, comfortable house with a respectable family.

For this, parents paid Saharat, a former kindergarten and primary school teacher, between 45,000 baht ($2300) and 160,000 baht ($8150), a substantial sum for most.

But the four-bedroom state house in Carver Place, Mangere, a cul-de-sac of state houses, was not what the students expected.

One, Sanchutan, 22, who travelled to New Zealand with her sister, told the Herald there was no single room as promised, not even a bed.

They were told the householders, Bobby Numanga, his wife Teresa and their four children, would sleep in the master bedroom.

Saharat put the girls and the older students into two small rooms. He took the three youngest boys - all aged 11 - into his bedroom. Altogether, 21 people were in the Mangere house.

And there were no English classes.

One of the schools the students were supposed to attend was nearby Robertson Rd School.

Its principal, Lochie Tinkler, told the Herald he did not agree to take any students this year.

Another private language institute on Saharat's list, AIS St Helens, said he turned up unannounced with five students and asked about enrolling them in a three-week English course. They never returned.

Instead, Saharat borrowed a car from a neighbour and drove students to shopping malls, leaving them there until evening.

In evidence corroborated by other students, Sanchutan told police in Bangkok that one night, two of the small boys slipped into the girls' room and curled up at her feet.

They would say only that something "very bad" had happened.

When the three boys fled to the phonebox the next night, Sanchutan asked what had happened.

"One said: 'The master did it to me ... '. I sat in the phonebox with them and cried."

A New Zealand Embassy internal inquiry into how Saharat was granted a three-month group visa found that the embassy had checked with the Thai parents whether it was a bona fide language trip.

But it did not call the schools in New Zealand about enrolments.

New Zealand's Ambassador to Thailand, Alan Williams, called it a sophisticated fraud by a Thai national on a group of innocent Thai children.

Saharat - tracked down in northern Thailand after being released on bail - said he met Mr Numanga three years ago, while on a trip to Auckland to investigate business possibilities.

Mr Numanga, he said, was driving a taxi and suggested to Saharat they go into business running education tours.

But Mr Numanga, now a bus driver, denies it. He said he hosted three groups of students from Thailand after meeting Saharat, but did so out of friendship rather than to make money.

"I have only just found out that he was charging $8000 a student. He reimbursed us for the bills, but that was all."

The Herald has found that several Cook Island families in Carver Place have hosted Saharat's Thai students in exchange for donations to cover costs.

Mr Numanga said he thought of Saharat as a friend.

He found it hard to believe that Saharat would sexually abuse children.

Mr Numanga said he had driven students around the sights of South Auckland, including Rainbow's End, and to the supermarket for rice and noodles.

Saharat set up his office in Laksong, Bangkok, stocking it with brochures advertising New Zealand's top schools and universities, and conducted two summer tours to New Zealand.

The Herald has been told those students also felt disgruntled about their treatment.

Some felt they had been left to fend for themselves. One boy said through an intermediary he was forced to perform oral sex on Saharat.

Saharat denies molesting students.

"I am a kind man. I only cuddled those boys to comfort them because they were homesick."

When the children fled last month they ran to Tukua Turia, who lives a few doors away in Carver Place.

She came home to find her house filled with students, some in tears.

That night, students slept on her floor and the next day rang the Thai Embassy, which contacted Auckland police. They say they are making "low-level" inquiries.

The embassy arranged to fly the children home, where 11 parents filed a complaint against Saharat.

He was arrested shortly after touching down in Bangkok, wearing an All Black jersey. No charges have been laid over the abuse allegations.

Sanchutan has turned down 200,000 baht ($10,155) Saharat offered her to drop her complaint.

"We have lost more than money. My sister quit school to go to New Zealand, and now she has come home, she can't speak English and she has no school to go to.

"But the main thing she has lost - like those boys - is that innocent feeling."