A Thai woman arrested for allegedly recording herself having sex with Buddhist monks and then extorting them has revealed astonishing details of how they showered her with luxury cars and millions of pounds to fund a lavish lifestyle because they were so besotted by her.
Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known as Sika Golf, is accused of blackmailing some of the country’s most senior monks by threatening to publicise photos and videos of them having sex with her.
She was arrested on Tuesday with police in Thailand claiming that she received close to £9 million after uncovering a cache of some 80,000 photos and videos allegedly used in the blackmail plot.
But prior to her arrest at her luxury flat in the city of Nonthaburi, just outside Bangkok Emsawat gave a moving interview to a leading Thai news programme detailing her sexual relations with several senior monks, insisting that it was all consensual and that they voluntarily gave her money.
She revealed that her first relationship with a religious figure was with the Chief Monk of Phichit Province in 2015, which is located in the north of the country where she was born and raised. He contacted her out of the blue on LINE, Thailand’s equivalent of WhatsApp where they started chatting in a ‘romantic way,’ and became ‘like boyfriend and girlfriend.’
Asked where they had sex, she replied that it was in a ‘kuti’ a traditional hut designed to house monks.
She said: ‘He never came to my house or met anywhere else. I usually went to see him in the early evening, around 7pm or 8pm, when he called me over.
‘It was like any normal situation where two people are emotionally close. It felt natural, and that’s how it happened—we became intimate.’
Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known as Sika Golf, is accused of blackmailing some of the country’s most senior monks by threatening to publicise photos and videos of them having sex with her
One video shared by police shows a monk reclining on Emsawat
She was arrested on Tuesday with police in Thailand claiming that she received close to £9 million after uncovering a cache of some 80,000 photos and videos allegedly used in the blackmail plot
The Chief Monk she was referring to has been named as Phra Thep Watchara Sitthi Methi, 60 who was a monk for 40 years but has since left the monkhood following the scandal.
Buddhist monks in Thailand, who are highly revered must swear a vow of celibacy and are not even supposed to touch women.
Emsawat revealed that the Chief Monk of Phichit once bought her a Mercedes Benz SLK 200 for almost £70,000, a £50,000 jeep and gave her money whenever she wanted it, often running into tens of thousands of pounds each month.
She told Honse Krasse, one of the country’s most popular news anchors: ‘He took care of everything for me. I wasn’t wealthy or anything. He didn’t give me a fixed allowance, but he gave me what I asked for. Sometimes thousands, tens of thousands, even up to millions of baht. He really took care of me in every way. Everything was good.’
Police claim that of the near £9 million she is alleged to have extorted all of it has gone and they Emsawat only had £180 in her bank account at the time of her arrest. They allege that she blew most of the money on her lavish lifestyle and online gambling.
She is facing charges including extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods but denies any wrongdoing.
She revealed on the Thai news show that she was raised by a single mother who earned less than £2 per day and that they were desperately poor. She has been previously married three times and has three children, according to local reports.
Police claim that of the near £9 million she is alleged to have extorted all of it has gone and they Emsawat only had £180 in her bank account at the time of her arrest
She is facing charges including extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods but denies any wrongdoing
Emsawat revealed that the Chief Monk of Phichit once bought her a Mercedes Benz SLK 200 for almost £70,000, a £50,000 jeep and gave her money whenever she wanted it, often running into tens of thousands of pounds each month
Her first husband was a naval officer, who she married shortly before her 18th birthday, but they did not have any children and split after a year. Then she had a relationship with a DJ with whom she had a son who is now aged 13 but the relationship did not last as he was already married with his own family.
She then met and married a local doctor, who she names only as Dr Suriya with whom she had a child. But the marriage ended after two years, and she then married a local politician but is no longer with him.
She revealed that at one point during her second marriage she was also seeing the Chief Monk of Phichit Province but around 2023 decided to move to Bangkok as their affair had come to the attention of local Buddhist leaders and generated controversy.
But she revealed that he continued to maintain contact with her even when she lived in the Thai capital.
She said: ‘He asked me to send him inappropriate photos. There was one time he had an event up north and stayed at a hotel. I was also there with someone else. He messaged me saying what room he was in and told me to come see him.’
Emsawat admitted that after resettling in Bangkok she also started having an affair with the Chief Monk of Phitsanulok, a city in the centre of the country. He has been named as Phra Ratcha Rattanasuthi, 54 who has also since left the monkhood.
In total, Emsawat is accused of being involved with 13 monks nine of whom have already been disrobed.
Asked how her affair with the Chief Monk of Phitsanulok started, she said: ‘We had been talking for a while and became close. One day, he invited me to come to his kuti. I drove over, and he came out to see me. We sat and talked in the car. When I was about to leave, he asked if I could stay.
Emsawat admitted that after resettling in Bangkok she also started having an affair with the Chief Monk of Phitsanulok, a city in the centre of the country
‘He said, “Can you not go? Just come back for a bit.” So I turned around and came back. Then he asked if I wanted to go for a drive? We went to the Buddhist college in Phitsanulok. We parked there and ended up being intimate in the car.’
Asked if she felt morally comfortable with seeing him or any other monk, she admitted that she felt guilty because she believed it ‘was a sin’ but maintained that she was driven by financial necessity.
She said: ‘Yes. At that point, I was okay with it. I was just focused on doing whatever it took to give my children a better life. I already had two kids by then.’
She added: ‘I felt it was wrong, but I felt like I needed the money. I just wanted to survive because I had no one else to support me.’
Police in Thailand told MailOnline that they started investigating Emsawat after a monk who was allegedly seeing her disappeared after she was accused of demanding close to £180,000 from him. They also received reports that funds had gone missing from several temples with their enquiries showing that the money had been paid to her.
Emsawat was remanded in custody at Bangkok’s Central Women’s Correctional Institution and is expected to appear in court in two weeks’ time.
