An Australian truck driver, Simon Peter Carman, 45, has broken his silence from a Thai prison to deny murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla, whose naked body was found stuffed inside a suitcase near railway tracks outside Pattaya on 27 June. Carman claims he acted in self-defence after the teenager allegedly attacked him with a knife during an argument over money, insisting he only meant to restrain her and did not realise she was a minor. The case is significant because Carman faces the possibility of the death penalty in Thailand if convicted of murder, and his public denial comes as prosecutors finalise the charges against him.

Carman was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport as he attempted to board a flight home to Perth, and he has been charged with murder, concealing and moving a body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes. An autopsy found Tunchanok suffered a brain injury and suffocated, with no other injuries recorded, and police say DNA evidence links Carman to the victim. Tunchanok had travelled roughly 600km from northern Thailand to Pattaya for a holiday and met Carman on a beach days before she vanished; prosecutors have until 18 September to formally indict him, and he still has no lawyer.