An American teacher and popular Tik Tok creator was arrested in Thailand after allegedly having weekly sexual encounters with a 16-year-old girl.
Luke Rockwell, 29, allegedly had a five-month relationship with the teenage girl and video recorded their sexual encounters, the Bangkok Post reported.
The English teacher with over 1.3 million followers on Tik Tok was booked on Sunday in the Wattana District court after the girl confessed the relationship to her mother, the New York Post reported. The identity of the mother and daughter has been withheld to protect the victim.
Nat Summons and Patrick Smith of NBC News reported:
On Aug. 25 the girl suffered bleeding and pain and three days later she confessed the relationship to her, the mother said. She was taken to a hospital and to the police station to file a report.
On Thursday, Aug. 30 the hospital confirmed she had STIs and the next day the police took the family’s statement and issued a warrant for Rockwell’s arrest, the mother said.
“The police could not find him still on Friday so they asked if my daughter can lure him out for a meeting and we did that together with police presence while she texted him. And that’s how he was arrested on Saturday,” the mother said.
The age of consent in Thailand is 15 years old, however it is a criminal offense to engage in sexual acts with minors aged 15 to 18 outside of marriage and without the parents’ consent. This is known as “taking away.”
“I was so shocked and it gave me a big punch in the chest,” the mother said. “I was filled with sorrow and anger when I found out what he did [the recordings] to my daughter.”
Rockwell was released on bail, but it is uncertain if he has legal counsel in Thailand.
Last year, Rockwell received backlash for a Tik Tok video he created claiming that the Philippines was the most racist country in the world.
Thailand has a track record of sexual abuses caused by foreign workers and tourists.
Canadian national Wayne Nelson Corliss was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2009 for taking part in an international sex trafficking ring of young Thai boys.