Australian man pleads not guilty to Thai suitcase murder

An Australian man, Simon Peter Carman, appeared in court on Friday, pleading not guilty to charges of murder and concealment of a body, according to officials. The incident is connected to the death of a 17-year-old girl in Pattaya City, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, roughly 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok.

Carman was apprehended in June following the disappearance of the teenager, and a suitcase containing her body was discovered shortly after. The Pattaya City Police indicted Carman on Thursday, alongside two counts of committing indecent acts on a minor, as reported by Pattaya City Police.

The Pattaya Provincial Court released a statement where Carman claimed he was acting in self-defense and denied having knowledge of the girl's true age. Moreover, the court denied Carman's request for bail due to a flight risk. The court has set a hearing on October 12 to review the evidence.

Carman is currently held at the Pattaya Remand Prison. If convicted of premeditated murder, he could face the death penalty. Surveillance footage showed the girl entering a condominium with Carman, and later, Carman exiting the building alone with a large suitcase, which was loaded onto a motorbike and driven to a deserted area along the railway. He was subsequently arrested at a Bangkok airport before boarding a flight back to Australia.

During an interrogation, Carman claimed he defended himself as the girl threatened him with a knife, as shown in a police interrogation video shared by Thai media.