Tough conditions Australian accused of murdering Thai teen can expect behind bars

Heavy “old and rusty” shackles, dozens of prisoners crammed into a single cell, insufficient bedding, strip searches and horrible food.

This is some of what an Australian man accused of killing a Thai teen and stuffing her in a suitcase can expect behind bars, according to reports from former prisoners.

Simon Peter Carman, 45, is being held in the Pattaya Remand Prison after he was charged with the murder of Thanchanok Donhomla, whose body was found in a suitcase near railway tracks near the resort town south of Bangkok.

Accounts from former prisoners included blankets, which weren’t enough to begin with, being cleaned once a month and free toiletries only being handed out a few times a year.

In an interview for the International Federation for Human Rights’ (FIDH) Thailand Annual Prison Report 2026, one former prisoner said new inmates and those accused of “serious offences” such as murder had to wear three-to-five-kilogram ankle shackles for at least a month.

“The same former prisoner, who had to wear ankle shackles for three months, described them as ‘old and rusty’, requiring inmates to take special care of the contact areas to prevent skin irritation or injury,” the report noted.

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“The prison officers did not inform him of the reason for the prolonged use of restraints.”

Thai prisons in general are notoriously overcrowded, with shabby food and poor access to healthcare but conditions range significantly from facility to facility.

FIDH found the best prisons had a blanket and a mattress, 1.6 square metres of personal space per inmate and four hours of in-cell running water per day.

In the worst cases, prisoners had 0.48 square metres each, an hour of running water and just a towel for bedding.

Inmates in Pattaya were said to share a 45-square-metre cell with up to 60 prisoners. 

In interviews, former Pattaya inmates said some mentally ill inmates at the facilities were chained to poles all day, while others suffered severe burns on their shoulders and chests after being forced to do physical exercise under the sun.

“According to a former prisoner at Pattaya Central Prison, strip searches, which included full-body inspection, bending over, and forced squats, were performed in open areas every time inmates left the prison for court hearings and returned,” the report found.

Prisoners were given about 10 minutes to finish meals that were “insufficient”, especially when it came to protein.

“The former inmate at Pattaya Remand Prison recalled that chicken served in prison meals ‘were 90 per cent bones and inedible’,” the report said.

“Former inmates at the Bangkok Remand Prison, Pattaya Remand Prison, and Phitsanulok Provincial Prison described the rice as ‘hard’, ‘old’, and ‘undercooked’.”

Other complaints included unclean drinking water and difficulties accessing medicines and medical care.

Carman’s nationality offers one possible upside for the man police alleged did washing and went shopping after murdering the 17-year-old girl from Thailand’s north-east.

Prisoners reported citizens of some foreign countries receiving preferential treatment in a number of areas from authorities who “wanted to avoid complications with foreign embassies”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday confirmed the Department of Foreign Affairs was providing consular assistance to the man who is believed to have been born in Ballarat but was living in Perth before moving to Thailand.

“It’s a horrific case, and I think we’ve all been horrified by what has happened, and our sympathy goes to the friends and family,” she said.

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Pattaya Remand separates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender prisoners from other inmates, a little-known policy despite being in place nationwide since 1993, according to the Department of Corrections. 

Thailand, often described as a haven for LGBTQI people, has about 300,000 prisoners, of which more than 6000 are registered as sexual minorities.

 “If we behave like others, if we aren’t stubborn and don’t break rules, this place actually isn’t so vicious,” a transgender woman said from the prison in 2017.

Thanchanok was reported missing by a friend, who said they had last seen her with a foreign man at 11.36am on June 26.

CCTV footage from 3.34am on June 25 shows a man and a female – allegedly Carman and Thanchanok – walking hand-in-hand in the lobby of a condo at Jomtien, south of Pattaya.

Police say CCTV shows the Australian taking a black suitcase from his room and leaving the condo on a motorcycle with the suitcase on the back some 18 hours later.

At 1.15am on Saturday, Carman was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

At 1.30am the same morning, police found the suitcase, which they allege contained Thanchanok’s body.

Carman has denied murdering Thanchanok, and Thai police have said he claimed she tried to rob him.

“I had my wallet open to get my money out, next thing I know there’s a knife in my face,” Carman claimed in a video recorded by police.

Police claimed Carman admitted to placing the girl’s body in the suitcase.

“I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control. I know you’ll be very sad, upset, same (as) me,” Carman said in a video message to the teen’s family.

Thanchanok’s parents reportedly travelled from Kalasin province, about 500 kilometres north-east of Pattaya, to collect her body on Tuesday following an autopsy.

A murder conviction can carry the death penalty in Thailand and they’ve called for Carman to be executed, if found guilty.