BANGKOK — A government coalition lawmaker caught looking at nudes on his phone during a parliament session on Wednesday night said that the explicit photos were sent to him, and he totally wasn’t searching for them.
Reporters at the Parliament caught Ronnathep Anuwat, a Phalang Pracharath MP for Chonburi, looking at photos of a topless woman and her genitals in a messaging app. The House was debating issues on the annual spending at the time.
“At first, messages came in asking for help, so I asked what they wanted,” the lawmaker told reporters afterward. “They said they had some problems, and then these pictures just suddenly popped up.”
“Then I asked what was their intention and they said they needed money, so I erased all of the photos,” Ronnathep added.
According to reporters at the scene, Ronnathep traded messages with the woman for about 10 minutes starting from 8pm. He was the only one seated in his row.
This isn’t the first time an MP decided to peek at frisky images during Parliament. In 2012, Democrat MP Nat Bantadtan was spotted scrolling through NSFW pics on his phone during a debate.
Not to be outdone, Pheu Thai MP Pongpan Sunthornpan was caught doing the same on his iPad a year later.