He sat with her colleague, Tang, on a rattan cane couch, bought them both a drink and began nuzzling and massaging her.<\/p>\n
The man asked Tang to go home with him, but she didn\u2019t want to, and he left the bar at about 2am. It would be more than two days before Kanyarat would see his face again \u2013 and this time, it was on the news.<\/p>\n
The man was Simon Peter Carman and he had been charged with murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n Soon after leaving the bar on 25 June, police allege Carman went to the nearby palm-tree lined beach strip and met a 17-year-old girl named Thunchanok Donhomla who had only arrived a week before in Pattaya from Kalasin, an area in north-east Thailand with high levels of poverty<\/a>. Police allege CCTV footage captured Donhomla holding Carman\u2019s hand as they waited for an elevator in his condo\u2019s lobby.<\/p>\n She was not seen alive again. The following night, her naked body and her belongings \u2013 her clothes, vape and platform sandals \u2013 were found in a suitcase left in high grass near the railway tracks.<\/p>\n Authorities and businesses are trying to position Pattaya as a family-friendly destination. Photograph: Sirachai Arunrugstichai\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Donhomla\u2019s death has drawn international headlines and her family are demanding justice. Experts say her death speaks to broader issues in Thailand\u2019s sex industry \u2013 including the underage girls exploited by it.<\/p>\n Thailand\u2019s sex tourism capital<\/p>\n Pattaya is known as the sex tourism capital of Thailand \u2013 despite locals\u2019 attempts to fight it<\/a>.<\/p>\n At night, sex workers lean against palm trees fanning themselves, as a constant flow of songthaew \u2013 or converted trucks \u2013 pick up and drop off male tourists. On the city\u2019s garishly lit walking street, loud music blares from go-go clubs and people wave menus in multiple languages, offering everything including ping-pong shows. There are clubs targeted at specific clientele \u2013 \u201cRussian Girls Show\u201d and \u201cBollywood Night\u201d.<\/p>\n About 116,000 Thai nationals<\/a> are registered as living in the city, as well as about 40,000 to 70,000 foreigners<\/a> living either full-time or for extended periods.<\/p>\n There are also an estimated 60,000 sex workers<\/a>. Many come from underdeveloped rural provinces.<\/p>\n Three kilometres away from the main strip, the more relaxed suburb of Jomtien caters to retirees and long-stay visitors \u2013 like Carman.<\/p>\n map showing thailand<\/a><\/p>\n Here the bars are clustered along a lane, where fruit sellers push carts full of watermelons and bananas. Some of the bars have traditional palm-thatching and names that evoke paradise or Australiana. The clientele are mostly older, white men, some with their arms draped around a woman\u2019s waist or placed on her thigh.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not far from here that police allege Carman met Donhomla.<\/p>\n Donhomla had come to visit a friend who had moved to Pattaya from their home province of Kalasin. Police are investigating whether the friend worked in the adult service industry.<\/p>\n Carman told police he took Donhomla to the condo where he lived. He claimed they had an argument, and he killed her in self-defence. Police said a medical examination found Donhomla likely died from suffocation.<\/p>\n According to police, Carman said he did not know what to do with Donhomla\u2019s body and put her in a suitcase in his bathroom. Police allege CCTV footage shows Carman leaving the condo with a suitcase at about 9pm.<\/p>\n The next day, Donhomla\u2019s friend reported her missing to the police before going to Carman\u2019s condo<\/a>. Within hours Carman was arrested<\/a> and later charged with murder, concealing a corpse in an attempt to hide the cause of death, and abduction of a minor over 15 but not yet 18 years of age for indecent purposes, and taking a person over 15 but not yet 18 for indecent purposes, even if the person consents. He denies the charges.<\/p>\n Donhomla\u2019s stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, told Reuters she wants Carman \u201cto face the full consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just hoped it wouldn\u2019t turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The lane shaken by Donhomla\u2019s death<\/p>\n On the Tuesday after Donhomla\u2019s death, Kanyarat is back at the blue-walled bar, sitting on a red-plastic covered stool and putting on makeup. She is barefoot \u2013 it\u2019s early evening, and the lane is just coming to life. Most of the chairs in the bar are still empty.<\/p>\n Immediately after she saw the news, Kanyarat texted her friends who work in the lane. They all felt the same \u2013 \u201cscared\u201d.<\/p>\n After she heard about the alleged murder, Tang says she couldn\u2019t sleep. She hadn\u2019t felt unsafe when she was with him \u2013 he seemed \u201cnormal\u201d, like the other customers.<\/p>\n But, as Kanyarat puts it, normal in a Jomtien bar is working in an environment where for every 10 customers of hers, four \u201care not good\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSome clients have used force against me, locked me in their arms or strangled me, pulled my hair,\u201d Kanyarat says.<\/p>\n Sky Kanyarat first met Carman in the bar where she works, when he bought drinks for himself and her colleague Tang. Photograph: Natasha May\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Sometimes she has run away, not waiting for anything worse to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIf those clients come back to the bar, I won\u2019t go out with them again. In one case [a client] strangled me so strongly I kicked him because I was about to suffocate. After kicking him I grabbed my wallet with my payment and ran away.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this, Kanyarat says she likes her work. But others in the lane are shaken \u2013 another woman who asked not to use her name says she\u2019s so scared, she doesn\u2019t want to continue working.<\/p>\n The regulars\u2019 bar<\/p>\n For months, Carman had lived in a condo in a featureless grey apartment block, one of three identical buildings next to each other about a 20-minute walk from the lane.<\/p>\n Carman\u2019s favourite bar was just downstairs in the adjacent building.<\/p>\n In the early afternoon on the Tuesday after Donhomla\u2019s death, wind chimes tinkle in the distance and many regulars are already drinking and smoking. \u201cHappy birthday\u201d bunting is still hung up for one customer whose birthday was the day before.<\/p>\n \u201cHello darling,\u201d one regular says to the owner as they walk in.<\/p>\n The sexual exploitation of children in Thailand\u2019s sex industry is directly linked to poverty and tourism demand, says Dr Pipatpong Fakfare, a researcher at Bangkok University. Photograph: Anthony Wallace\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n When asked if he knew Carmen, the customer \u2013 who moved to Jomtien from the UK almost a year ago \u2013 says yes. \u201cWe all knew him around here.\u201d<\/p>\n The owner of the bar, who did not want to provide her name, says she was shocked when she heard the news. She had known Carman for at least eight years \u2013 he used to live in the area but had moved back to Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic. While he was in Australia, he called her from his farm and showed her his tractor.<\/p>\n She rented him a room in November when he came back and since then, he came to the bar every day.<\/p>\n Her customers are normally friendly, she says \u2013 they offer to help her if she\u2019s carrying something heavy, for instance.<\/p>\n But Carman wasn\u2019t necessarily well liked.<\/p>\n The Finnish man, who, like the others, did not want to provide his name for reasons of anonymity, says Carman was not his friend. The British customer says Carman \u201cwasn\u2019t my cup of tea. Bit strange.\u201d<\/p>\n A \u2018massively concerning\u2019 industry<\/p>\n Pattaya\u2019s red-light district image goes back to the Vietnam war era when it became an R&R spot for American soldiers.<\/p>\n Nightlife workers at a stall on Pattaya Walking Street. Photograph: Sirachai Arunrugstichai\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Authorities and businesses are now trying to push the city as a family-friendly destination, says Dr Pipatpong Fakfare, an associate professor specialising in researching tourism at Bangkok University.<\/p>\n But \u201cthat history never really left the city\u2019s brand,\u201d Fakfare says.<\/p>\n Despite sex tourism operating openly, prostitution is illegal, and there are specific laws preventing sexual activity with people under 18. But the laws are inconsistently enforced \u2013 and even result in sex workers being punished. Some politicians and advocacy groups in Thailand are actively pushing for sex work to be decriminalised.<\/p>\n Thai feminist organisation the Manushya Foundation said Thai sex workers endure routine violence \u201cjust to survive\u201d, including homicide rates 17 times higher than the general female population and widespread abuse by clients, pimps, and even police.<\/p>\n \u201cThe influx of Western tourists seeking \u2018exotic experiences\u2019 perpetuates exploitative dynamics, while women involved remain stigmatised and criminalised instead of protected.\u201d<\/p>\n Australians make up a high proportion of tourists who engage in the sexual exploitation of children under 18 in south-east Asia and the Pacific, according to an article published last year<\/a> in the Bond Law Review.<\/p>\n Laura Parker, CEO and co-founder of the Exodus Road, a not-for-profit dedicated to combating human trafficking, says the demand for sex tourism is \u201cmassively concerning\u201d. But what concerns her most is how easily the exploitation of minors can be concealed when there\u2019s a normalised commercial sex market.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen buying sex is treated as ordinary, the trafficking of children and coerced adults becomes harder to see and easier to ignore,\u201d Parker says.<\/p>\n Fakfare says the sexual exploitation of children in Thailand\u2019s sex industry is directly linked to poverty and tourism demand. \u201cIt deserves to be treated as its own serious problem, not folded into the general debate about adult sex work.\u201d<\/p>\n Destiny Rescue Australia, which works to find and help children being exploited in Thailand, consistently finds children rarely enter exploitation by choice.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, they are groomed, manipulated, deceived or coerced by offenders who deliberately exploit existing vulnerabilities,\u201d says the group\u2019s CEO, Greg Bradley.<\/p>\n Questions remain over why Donhomla came to Pattaya. But back in Kalasin, her community is feeling the toll of her death.<\/p>\n Hundreds of people attended her funeral and there was \u201ctremendous grief\u201d, Phra Vichien, the abbot of the monastery where her funeral was held, told the ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Timeline](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3014.jpg\")
Timeline based on CCTV shows movements of Australian man charged with murdering Thai teen<\/p>\n![\"Thai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2895.jpg\")
Thai teen\u2019s family speaks of fear and grief after Australian man charged with her murder – video<\/p>\n