The Nation, Daily Xpress
February 25 2009

Video clip reveals deaf Khon Kaen student was beaten up before hanging herself
Police will interrogate a group of deaf students suspected of attacking a schoolmate who committed suicide last Friday.

Amporn Phumphukhieo, 18, hanged herself in toilet cubicle at the school for the Deaf in Khon Kaen.

"We have found a video clip showing that her schoolmate beat her up," Khon Kaen police chief Major Sujin Nijpanich said yesterday.

Sign-language interrogation

He said sign-language translators would help in the interrogation.

"All the attackers are students at the same school," Sujin said.

He added that, aside from the mark around her neck left by the rope, there were no physical wounds found on Amporn's body at the time of her death.

"But the beating could have prompted the decision to take her own life," Sujin said.

Amporn, a Grade-12 student, had been at the school since Grade 1. She was due to move on to a college in Udon Thani next month.

Her teacher described her as a good student with a cheerful personality adding that she had always helped with extracurricular activities.