Thai Prostitutes Thrown Alive Into

[Spellbound]

Thai prostitutes thrown alive into crocodile-infested Australian river

Published on Mar 4, 2004

SYDNEY, March 4 (AFP) - Two Thai women who worked in Australia as prosititutes for several years were bound and thrown alive into a crocodile-infested river, police said Thursday.

The women's bodies were found Wednesday by tourists aboard a crocodile spotting boat floating in the Adelaide River about 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

It was thought their bodies had been in the water for between 18 and 30 hours.

The incident comes amid government investigations into claims Thai women are brought to Australia to work in a well established sex slave network.

One woman has been formally identified as Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, and police were confident the other was Somjai Insamnan, 27.

Both were Australian permanent residents and had lived in Darwin for at least a decade, Detective Superintendent Bert Hofer said.

The women, who lived in the same apartment block, were reported missing to police by friends Wednesday.

Hofer said post-mortem examinations had not been able to determine whether the women, who were found clothed, had been sexually assaulted before they died.

"The bodies were intact, there were no broken limbs, there was no obvious signs of trauma," he said.

Police believed more than one person was involved in the women's deaths.

They have set up a checkpoint near the bridge over the Adelaide River from which it is thought the women were thrown to find witnesses.

Police expected to interview the prostitutes' clients as part of the investigation.

http://203.150.224.53/page.news.php3?clid=...ess=1&id=109415

[bmanly]

Bad News, here is another link:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/04/1078295503405.html

[terdsak_12]

A 58 year old hooker! You Aussies must be desperate!

[Up2U]

So what has happened to the Aussie Animal Rights lobby?

No complaints about feeding the croc's with meat past it's sell-by date?

And the Aussies are desperate - we won the Rugby World Cup

[NedKelly]

It's a worry. Asian gangs control much of Australia's vice trades these days. Feel sorry for the women trying to make a living and some asian gang decides against it. Where is the human rights for those women. Why are they not protected as any other worker ?

[terdsak_12]

Why are they not protected as any other worker ?

If you work in McDonald's and piss off the wrong people you could end up being fed to the Crocs.

[cdnvic]

Why are they not protected as any other worker ?

If you work in McDonald's and piss off the wrong people you could end up being fed to the Crocs.

I think if you look at Ned's posting intelligently you will come to the conclusion that you are much more likely to get done in by a gang if you work in the sex trade than in Mc Donalds. Do you have any concrete evidence of a Mc Donnalds employee having been fed to crocs, or are you just talking?

cv

[george]

Prostitute's death sentences family

SOMJAI Insamnan was supposed to be the lucky one. When the 27-year-old Thai woman came home for visits from Australia, she brought with her chocolates, money and the hope of a better life for her son and younger sisters.

Somjai, whose nickname was Haeng, which means "really, really skinny", gave no hint that at home in Darwin she was living and working in an underworld of crime and violence - a world of people who would bind her limbs and dump her alive in a crocodile-infested river.

Instead of understanding that the money she sent home every few months came from her work as a prostitute, her family thought she was happily married to "Mr John", the Australian sailor she had met in the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya seven years ago.

After a short romance, Somjai had moved with Russell John Gale to Australia. They married in Bondi in 1996.

It was a windfall for the family of seven children, who together earn perhaps 2000 baht ($70) a month from cutting sugar cane and selling sweets in the tiny village of Lanhin, about 400km northwest of Bangkok.

Somjai would add to that with a contribution of perhaps 10,000 baht a month.

Somphong, her 10-year-old son from a previous relationship, was looking forward to the day when he would go and live with his mother and stepfather, while his two youngest aunts were hoping their sister would help them get an Australian education.

"She once brought me a (toy) gun but she would also bring clothes," Somphong said quietly. "Now I have no money in my pocket to go to school."

"We were so happy when she left (for Australia)," said Somjai's mother, Samruay, who piled the family into a hired utility yesterday and drove to Bangkok to beg for financial help from the Government in the wake of Somjai's murder. "She married a good man who helped us pay off debts."

"She always sounded happy," said Somjai's younger brother, Phaiwan, 24, who last spoke to his sister on the phone in January. She told him she was getting a job on the pearl boats and would be earning lots of money.

"But she never really gave details," he said.

So, when Somjai turned up drowned in the Adelaide River about 65km east of Darwin last week after being thrown in alive with another Thai prostitute, Phuangsri Kroksamrang, her family suffered as much from shock as grief.

"I don't understand," said Samruay, 49. "How can anyone be so cruel?"

Now, she said, her family faced ruin. They cannot afford to pay for her body to be returned to Thailand for a traditional Buddhist ceremony.

Instead, all they have been promised is that someone, some day, will send them home Somjai's ashes.

In Darwin, police investigating the murder of the two women appealed to workers in the sex industry to come forward with any information they might have.

--The Sunday Mail, Australia

[marto]

Thai prostitutes thrown alive into crocodile-infested Australian river

Published on Mar 4, 2004

SYDNEY, March 4 (AFP) - Two Thai women who worked in Australia as prosititutes for several years were bound and thrown alive into a crocodile-infested river, police said Thursday.

Huh.. "who worked in Australia as prosititutes for several years" it seems to be legal profession in Australia and NT /evriyone knew what they have been doing / ... And u can take a "hooker" visa class... Hmm... who's bad - prostitutes or aussies's laws...

[NedKelly]

Well marto if u had any understanding of the Australian laws you would not make that comment. It is understood that prostitution is legal as long as sex workers register with the proper authorities. This process is designed to provide some sort of protection for workers. The two Thai women apparently had not registered and worked outside the law, thus suffereing the consequences. This does not mean the laws are good or bad but it means that there is some effort to help rotect those who find themselves as sex wrokers for whatever reasons. Unfortunately in this type of industry it is the seedy characters that are out to control everything. This is another reason why there is some form of regulation, so that people can make 'honest ' money and pay their taxes same as anyone esle.

[bmanly]

They got the bastards, read this:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/040223/2/nu0t.html

[Spellbound]

PROSTITUTE MURDERS: 2 suspects arrested, charged

Published on Mar 12, 2004

Deaths may prompt review of sex workers' rights in Australian state

Australian police have arrested and pressed murder charges against two 18-year-old men for throwing two Thai-born prostitutes into a crocodile-infested river in Australia.

Ben William McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh were arrested late on Wednesday in a Brisbane suburb and yesterday appeared together in court for a hearing on their extradition from the state of Queensland to the Northern Territory, police said.

The pair were charged with two counts of murder for the killings of Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, and Somjai In-samrarn, 27. They face life sentences if convicted.

According to police, the women were bound and thrown alive into the river, where they drowned. Their bodies were found last week by tourists on a crocodile spotting boat in the Adelaide River near Darwin.

The river is famous for its crocodiles - some more than six metres long - which leap out of the water to snap up meat dangled from the sides of tourist boats.

Phuangsri and Somjai were both Australian permanent residents and worked as prostitutes in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, for a number of years.

Detectives were scheduled to take the two suspects back to Darwin tomorrow, police said, adding that both men are Northern Territory residents.

After the slayings, the Northern Territory state government said it was considering better legal protection for sex workers. Prostitution is legal in the Northern Territory, but prostitutes are required to register with the police.

The two Thai women, however, had not registered themselves and were therefore barred from working at escort agencies or brothels where they may have been better protected.

Meanwhile, Somjai's father Cha In-samrarn said from Kamphaengphet that he was glad to hear about the arrests. He said he would seek Bt7 million in compensation for his daughter's death but did not identify whom he would sue.

Somjai had paid for the secondary school education of her two younger sisters.

Cha said embassy officials had informed him that Somjai's cremation would be held in Australia and her ashes returned to Thailand.

"The officials told me they would deliver her ashes to Kamphaengphet City Hall by March 29," he said, adding that he had made merit in Somjai's memory on Tuesday - her birthday.

The Nation, Agencies

[meemiathai]

Please don't hurt those innocent kids. They are just 18.

[meemiathai]

Tying them to the tourist boats would be enough!

[Bluecat]

I for one have a little bit of difficulty joking or even commenting about this one. Sorry,...

[meemiathai]

Sorry, but I am not joking.

[Bluecat]

Sorry, but I am not joking.

I guess nobody can joke about that,...