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Briton arrested with roasted human foetuses for use in black magic ritual

A British man has been arrested in Thailand after being found with six foetuses that had been dried and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic spirit ritual.

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A British man has been arrested in Thailand after being found with six foetuses that had been dried and covered in gold leaf as part of a black magic spirit ritual.

The remains of the unborn boys were found in a suitcase in his hotel room in Bangkok's Chinatown district.

Chow Hok Kuen, 28, who holds a British passport but is of Taiwanese origin, confessed to police that he had bought the foetuses several days earlier for almost pounds 4,000. The source of the remains is unclear.

He said he intended to smuggle them to Taiwan where they would be sold for up to six times the purchase price on the internet to people who believed that possessing them would bring wealth and good luck.

He told police that he was hired by another Taiwanese man, who regularly travelled to Thailand to collect the ritualistic foetuses.

Worship of the foetuses - observed by some in the Chinese community - is a Buddhist-animist practice known as Kuman Thong that is described in ancient Thai manuscripts. It required male foetuses, surgically removed from the womb, that were then dried as black magic incantations were said over the body, before it was covered in gold leaf.

Kuman Thong means "golden baby boy".

Followers believe that if the owner reveres the ritual foetus, its spirit will warn its possessor of danger and protect them.

In practice, the foetuses have been replaced by wooden effigies. Chow Hok Kuen faces up to a year in jail and a fine of pounds 40 for possession of the foetuses, which police said showed development of between two and eight months.

Officers made the discovery in the hotel in the Yaowarat district of Bangkok. They found that the foetuses had also been tattooed and were adorned with religious threads.

Col Wiwat Kamhamnan, of Bangkok police, said: "He said he planned to sell the foetuses to clients who believe they will make them lucky and rich."

Abortion is illegal in Thailand unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or poses a threat to the mother's health.

Women's rights groups estimate that up to 400,000 Thai woman undergo abortions each year.

Last year, two undertakers and a woman who collected foetuses from illegal abortion clinics were jailed after more than 2,000 corpses were found at a temple morgue when the crematorium furnace broke down.

 

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