BANGKOK: A Thai trafficker was sentenced to a record 374 years in jail for child trafficking in a ruling that lawyers say will send a deterrent to other criminals.

Yuttana Kodsap, 31, was found guilty of child trafficking for the purpose of pornography after he lured children aged 7-12 to play computer games at his house where he filmed sexual acts with them and sold the videos on a chat app, police said.

A court in Thailand’s southern province of Phang Nga sentenced him to 374 years in jail for his crimes and ordered him to pay 800,000 Thai baht ($26,000) in compensation to each of the five victims, according to court documents.

The case was the second trafficking case in Thailand in which offenders were sentenced to more than 300 years in jail. Last year the criminal court sentenced three men to up to 309 years each for trafficking children for prostitution.

Earlier this year the United States praised Thailand for sentencing convicted traffickers and complicit officials to significant prison terms in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

Archana Kotecha, Asia region director and head of legal at anti-slavery charity Liberty Shared, said long sentences can be effective deterrents but she said this must be accompanied by seizure of assets which should be used to pay compensation to victims.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2019