Former Teacher Convicted of Child Abuse Dies in Prison Hospital
A former teacher convicted of child abuse died in a prison hospital on June 22 at age 71 from sepsis and respiratory failure after developing severe illness while serving his sentence.
On September 11, 2026, the Department of Corrections announced the death of Pichai, a former civil service teacher and defendant in a child abduction and child abuse case. Pichai was initially held at Bangkok Special Prison before being transferred to Khlong Prem Central Prison on May 2, 2026, due to sentence length exceeding the receiving facility's jurisdiction. On June 18, 2026, he developed severe illness and was urgently transferred to the Corrections Department Hospital, where he was admitted to intensive care, intubated, placed on mechanical ventilation, and given medications to support blood pressure. His son participated in palliative care planning, and family members declined CPR should cardiac arrest occur. Pichai died on June 22, 2026, at the Corrections Department Hospital at age 71 from sepsis with respiratory and circulatory failure, combined with acute kidney injury and pneumonia. After receiving a court order on July 14, 2026, the hospital formally notified the court of his death on September 11, 2026. The Department of Corrections stressed that Pichai died while receiving medical care at the hospital under professional medical standards and full humanitarian care, not within the prison facility.
