A team of officers led by Pol Maj-General Bunthawee Toraksa, the Phang Nga provincial police commander, arrested the five men at Koh Rad Village. They are looking for another three suspects.

Police have charged all of them with raping a child of no more than 15 years old, gang-rape, detaining a child of no more than 15 for sexual harassment, using physical and verbal threats, and trespassing on another’s property during night time.

Three of men arrested yesterday were previously arrested and had been on bail. All five of those arrested deny the allegations against them.

Police say two of the suspects had traces of amphetamine in their urine.

A defence lawyer, Natharat Nukaew, said all suspects were being detained at the court for now and he had been informed that bail for each had been set at Bt460,000.

Natharat said such a sum of money was very large for the poor villagers and he would seek help from the Phang Nga Justice Office in raising bail.

Later, relatives of two suspects managed to provide sureties worth a combined Bt920,000 to bail out Chalerm Samin and Sucheep Sumen, while Natharat said relatives of other suspects hoped to raise the sureties they needed to secure their release next week.

Meanwhile, Somneuk Kongbutr, the stepfather of the 14-year-old allegedly raped, yesterday filed a defamation charge with police against three villagers who had accused of sexually violating his stepdaughter.

Somneuk said his relationship with the stepdaughter was entirely normal and that he and his wife had only recently found out about the multiple rapes.