Thai man murders baby daughter live on Facebook before killing himself
A man broadcast a video of himself murdering his 11-month-old daughter on Facebook Live before taking his own life in the Thai resort of Phuket, according to local police reports.
The disturbing video was accessible for almost 24 hours before Facebook finally took it down at the request of Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy.
"This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim," a Facebook spokesman said in an email to Reuters. "There is absolutely no place for content of this kind on Facebook and it has now been removed.”
The 20-year-old, identified by police as Wuttisan Wongtalay, streamed the footage on the social media platform of him tying a rope around his daughter Natalie’s neck before throwing the infant off the rooftop of a derelict hotel.
Wongtalay did not broadcast his suicide but police found his body hanging next to the toddler’s remains, as well as the smartphone he used propped up against a wall, Lieutenant Jullaus Suvannin, the first officer on scene, told AFP.
"He was having paranoia about his wife leaving him and not loving him," Jullaus told Reuters.
Police claim the man believed that his wife Jiranuch Triratana, the mother of the deceased child and another five-year-old boy from a previous marriage, was about to divorce him.
"I was afraid he would hurt our daughter even though he loved her," Triratana told Reuters, adding that while her relationship with Wongtalay started out well, he grew increasingly violent with her son.
#Zuckerberg admits ‘a lot more to do’ to prevent ‘Facebook killer’-style videos https://t.co/cInw6hPCEgpic.twitter.com/ntoaRtXM1B
— RT America (@RT_America) April 18, 2017
"We will not be able to press charges against Facebook, because Facebook is the service provider and they acted according to their protocol when we sent our request. They cooperated very well," Ministry of Digital Economy spokesman Somsak Khaosuwan said when speaking to Reuters.
The gruesome murder comes almost a week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted “a lot more” needed to be done to prevent murder videos from appearing on the social network site.
His statement followed the graphic murder of 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr. which was broadcast by Ohio man Steve Stephens on Facebook.
The man shared three videos of himself, first revealing his intentions, then showing the killing and finally confessing to it, as well as claiming responsibility for 14 other murders.
The footage containing the murder had been up on the site for more than an hour and 45 minutes before it was reported and taken down. It had already been cloned and was widely distributed across the internet.
