Section 280: Aggravated indecent act
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าการกระทำความผิดตามมาตรา ๒๗๘ หรือมาตรา ๒๗๙ เป็นเหตุให้ผู้ถูกกระทำ (๑) รับอันตรายสาหัส ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่ห้าปีถึงยี่สิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่หนึ่งแสนบาทถึงสี่แสนบาท หรือจำคุกตลอดชีวิต (๒) ถึงแก่ความตาย ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษประหารชีวิต หรือจำคุกตลอดชีวิต
English translation
Where the offence under Section 278 or Section 279 causes the person against whom it was committed:
(1) to suffer grievous bodily harm, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from five to twenty years and a fine from one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand baht, or to imprisonment for life;
(2) to die, the offender shall be liable to death or to imprisonment for life.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 280 is the aggravating provision for the indecent-act offences in Sections 278 and 279, and it aggravates by result only. It has two limbs. Limb (1) applies where the offence causes grievous bodily harm, which Section 297 defines, and carries five to twenty years with a fine of 100,000 to 400,000 baht, or imprisonment for life. Limb (2) applies where the offence causes death, and carries death or imprisonment for life. The section contains no aggravation for the means used, so the use of a weapon is not in itself a ground under this section, although it may bear on sentencing within the base offence or found a separate charge. Because liability attaches to a consequence, the grievous harm or the death must be shown to be a result of the indecent act; where it is not, only Section 278 or Section 279 applies.
Why this matters in practice
Causation is the central issue. Both limbs attach to a result, so if the grievous harm or the death was not caused by the indecent act, what remains is the base offence under Section 278 or Section 279. The meaning of grievous bodily harm is not at large: Section 297 lists it, and the limb covering illness or incapacity lasting more than twenty days is often where the argument lies, which makes the medical evidence decisive. Exposure at the top of this section reaches the death penalty, so the correct charge matters as much as the facts. Anyone facing an allegation under this section should consult a Thai lawyer early.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 6389/2560 (2017)
Where the victim's death did not directly result from the indecent act, the aggravation for death does not apply and the offenders are guilty only of the base indecent act under Section 278.
The victim fell and died from a bloodstream infection arising from complications. The Court held the death was not a direct result of the joint indecent act, so the defendants were guilty only of a joint indecent act under Section 278 and not of the aggravated form causing death.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 10 Supreme Court decisions (1957 to 2022)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 691/2502 (1959)
- Decision 1871/2500 (1957)
- Decision 6389/2560 (2017)
- Decision 8/2530 (1987)
- Decision 533/2513 (1970)
- Decision 6816/2554 (2011)
- Decision 4442/2565 (2022)
- Decision 1458/2531 (1988)
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 78 6
- Section 91 5
- Section 278 5
- Section 276 5
- Section 288 5
- Section 277/2 4
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
When does an indecent act carry the higher penalties under Section 280?
Only by result. If the offence under Section 278 or Section 279 causes grievous bodily harm, the penalty is five to twenty years and a fine of 100,000 to 400,000 baht, or imprisonment for life. If it causes death, the penalty is death or imprisonment for life. The section has no separate aggravation for the use of a weapon.
What happens if the death was not a direct result of the indecent act?
If the death or the grievous harm was not a result of the indecent act, the offender is guilty only of the base offence under Section 278 or Section 279, not of the aggravated form.
What counts as grievous bodily harm?
Section 297 sets out the list, which includes blindness, deafness, loss of a limb or organ, permanent disfigurement of the face, miscarriage, permanent mental impairment, chronic illness, and illness or incapacity lasting more than twenty days.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 280 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 280. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-280/ (accessed 20 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 280 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-280/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-280/"><p>Where the offence under Section 278 or Section 279 causes the person against whom it was committed: (1) to suffer grievous bodily harm, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment from five to twenty years and a fine from one hundred thousand to four hundred…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 280 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-280/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.