Section 277/3: Consensual child intercourse causing harm or death
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามมาตรา ๒๗๖ วรรคสาม หรือมาตรา ๒๗๗ วรรคสี่ เป็นเหตุให้ผู้ถูกกระทำ (๑) รับอันตรายสาหัส ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษประหารชีวิต หรือจำคุกตลอดชีวิต (๒) ถึงแก่ความตาย ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษประหารชีวิต
English translation
Where the offence under Section 276 paragraph three, or Section 277 paragraph four, causes the person against whom it was committed:
(1) to suffer grievous bodily harm, the offender shall be liable to death or to imprisonment for life;
(2) to die, the offender shall be liable to death.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 277/3 is the result-aggravated companion to Section 276/2. Its single base offence is the consensual-child provision in Section 276/2, and it raises the penalty according to the seriousness of the consequence: grievous bodily harm (as defined in Section 297) or death. It completes the structure begun by Sections 277/1 and 277/2, which perform the same function for the coercive rape offences, and it confirms that even where a child in the thirteen-to-fifteen band consented, a serious resulting harm exposes the offender to penalties reaching the death penalty. As with the other result-aggravated sections, liability for the heavier penalty depends on proving that the harm or death was a direct consequence of the offence.
Why this matters in practice
The important practical message is that the child's consent, which merely fixed the penalty band under Section 276/2, gives no protection at all once grievous harm or death results, because this section applies the heaviest penalties regardless. As with the neighboring provisions, causation is the central issue: the prosecution must link the harm or death directly to the offence. The offence is not compoundable, and penalty exposure reaches the death penalty. Anyone facing an allegation under this section should consult a Thai lawyer immediately.
Cited in 8 Supreme Court decisions (1983 to 2021)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2529/2564 (2021)
- Decision 1767/2551 (2008)
- Decision 1458/2531 (1988)
- Decision 2681/2527 (1984)
- Decision 553/2539 (1996)
- Decision 3354/2530 (1987)
- Decision 1984/2529 (1986)
- Decision 706/2526 (1983)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 276 8
- Section 83 6
- Section 78 6
- Section 52 6
- Section 288 6
- Section 91 5
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Does the child's consent reduce liability under Section 277/3?
No. Consent only fixed the penalty band under Section 276/2. Once the offence causes grievous harm or death, Section 277/3 applies the heaviest penalties regardless of consent.
What penalty applies if the victim dies under Section 277/3?
Under Section 277/3(2), where the offence under Section 276/2 causes the victim to die, the offender may face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 277/3 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 277/3. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-277-3/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 277/3 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-277-3/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-277-3/"><p>Where the offence under Section 276 paragraph three, or Section 277 paragraph four, causes the person against whom it was committed: (1) to suffer grievous bodily harm, the offender shall be liable to death or to imprisonment for life; (2) to die, the offender shall…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 277/3 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-277-3/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.