Man tucks into corpse

2005-03-30 11:00

Bangkok - A 50-year-old ex-convict found eating a partially cremated corpse in northeastern Thailand was arrested but freed without charge because police could not find a law against cannibalism, police said on Wednesday.

Sakorn Piengphon was arrested and questioned after he was found two weeks ago eating the body of Kote Nonthasorn, who had been cremated but whose body had not completely burned, police Major Suphakorn Hiengboon told AFP.

But because Thailand has no law specifically banning cannibalism, Suphakorn said the man was released without charge.

"I don't know what to charge him with," Suphakorn said.

"He appeared in a poor mental state. I have asked the provincial psychiatrist to check on his mental health," he said.

Sakron was found in the act of eating Kote's unburned organs the day after the cremation, when Kote's relatives went back to the cemetery to ensure the body had burned completely and to collect her ashes, Suphakorn said.

The cemetery in Nakhon Phanom - an impoverished and drought-stricken town 740 kilometres northeast of Bangkok near the Laos border - has no crematorium, and bodies sometimes fail to burn completely unless the funeral pyre is attended to constantly.

Sakorn was released from prison last year after serving more than 15 years on charges of killing his mother.

He told police he ate the body because he was starving as his family had ostracised him since his release, Suphakorn said.

- AFP