Family Of Thai Teen Rejects Payout, Will Not ‘Trade Daughter’s Dignity’ To Spare Aussie Killer

The father of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla has strictly rejected any compensation payout from Simon Carman, the 46-year-old Australian man accused of murdering his daughter in Pattaya, Thailand.

Carman is currently behind bars in Pattaya Remand Prison after being charged with the teenager’s murder, whose body he dumped in a suitcase by some railway tracks before he was caught by police trying to flee the country on a flight back to Australia.

There is a quirk in Thai law that allows criminals – even murderers – to compensate the victim’s family in return for a reduced sentence, but it sounds like Tunchanok’s family are content with Carman facing the harshest consequence – which could either be life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Tunchanok’s father, Thongchai, said the family would not be pursuing or accepting compensation from Carman, when he is inevitably found guilty.

Thongchai told ABC: “Even though I am poor, I will not trade my daughter’s dignity for money. I love my daughter so much.”

What a man. His family could literally ask for life-changing compensation, but that would mean Simon Carman gets off (relatively) lightly for murdering their daughter, and that’s not something they are prepared to live with.

There is a precedent for Western criminals reducing their sentences in Thailand in this way. In 2022, British national Shane Kenneth Looker, 51, was extradited from Ibiza and sentenced to just 8 years in prison for the “suitcase murder” of a 27-year-old Laxami Manochat. This was because he plead guilty and agreed to pay Laxami’s family 12 million baht (£291,000!) in compensation.

I doubt Simon Carman would have been able to afford anywhere near that, but it doesn’t matter in any case because the Donhomla family cannot be bought.

Looks like his fate is well and truly in the hands of the Thai prisoners he’ll be sharing the rest of his days with.

For the WhatsApp messages that Carman sent to another sex worker after murdering the teen, click HERE.