An Australian man has been charged with murder after a 17-year-old Thai girl’s naked body was discovered inside a suitcase near a railway line in Thailand.
Thai police arrested Simon Peter Carman, an Australian national in his forties, at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in the early hours of Saturday. Police say he was preparing to leave the country.
He has been charged with murder, concealing and moving a body, destroying evidence, and taking a minor for sexual purposes, according to reports. He denies the charges.
Investigators said CCTV footage showed Mr Carman entering an apartment block with the teenager at about 3.30am on Thursday.
Hours later, cameras allegedly captured him leaving the building alone carrying a large suitcase.
According to a post on the police’s official Facebook page, the suitcase was then loaded onto a motorcycle and transported to a grassy area near a railway track in Pattaya, about 150km east of Bangkok, where officers later found the girl's body. She had been reported missing on Friday evening.
Police issued an arrest warrant before detaining Mr Carman at the airport. Authorities said he was intercepted while preparing to board a flight to Australia.
The 46-year-old has denied the murder charge. He also denied charges relating to concealing or moving a body and taking a minor for sexual purposes.
Police said Mr Carman told them he had agreed to pay the teenager 1,000 baht (£23) for sexual services, but that an argument broke out after he allegedly offered only half the amount. Police also said he claimed the girl had "disappeared from the room" while he was asleep, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pattaya police superintendent Colonel Anek Srathongyoo told ABC investigators found scratch marks on Mr Carman's body that appeared consistent with a struggle.
When questioned about the injuries in a police video, Mr Carman replied: "I think it's a spider; they always get in here."
While being questioned at the police station before his transfer to the Pattaya Provincial Court, Mr Carman issued a message to the victim's family.
"I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control," he said, in a video recorded during the custody.
"I know you'll be very sad, upset… same [as] me."
He added: "Please tell other girls… just to be careful."
The teenager, whose nickname was Cake, lived with her father and stepmother in Kalasin province, about 480km north-east of Pattaya. Her family said she had told them she was going on holiday with a friend before travelling to the resort city on 16 June.
"I am deeply saddened. My daughter had no mother, so whenever she wanted anything, she would find a way herself, and she always helped me too," her father, Thongchai Donhomla, said after the death of his only child.
Her stepmother, Oradee Bussarakum, said the family had feared the worst after she disappeared.
"We were scared. We just hoped it wouldn't turn out the way we feared. Now our eyes are swollen from crying," she said.
Police have not announced when Mr Carman will make his first court appearance. If convicted of murder under Thai law, he could face the death penalty.
