In Pattaya, the death of a teenage girl has exposed a party city's dark underbelly

In Pattaya, the death of a teenage girl has exposed a party city's dark underbelly It was the message that Gigi had waited for all night. She had flirted, sashayed and loitered along Walking St, and in the Buakhao neighbourhood, for hours, hoping to catch a customer from the sea of tourists partying in Pattaya's infamous red-light districts. But by 4am, her feet ached, her cinched corset was unbearable, and she still hadn't earned a cent from the men stumbling out of the neon go-go bars. Suddenly, her phone lit up with a message from an old client from Dubai. She had six minutes to get to his hotel room. "We never know what kind of sex the customer is going to want or how they're going to behave," said "Gigi", who is trans, and has worked in Pattaya's sex industry for 14 years. "There have been many cases where sex workers were strangled or beaten." Gigi, who asked Foreign Correspondent to change her name, admitted that she's had some close calls over the years. "There was one time when I went to a customer's room and the man was taking drugs. He came at me with the knife and basically said, 'Are you going to take this, or are you going to leave?'" But the grizzly death of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla in June rattled her to the core, and exposed the dangerous underbelly of Pattaya's booming sex trade. "I was shocked, because I never imagined something that brutal," she said. Thailand's Sin City For decades, this seaside holiday hotspot in Thailand has been synonymous with sun, sand and sex. A city of just 120,000 people, Pattaya attracted almost 10 million foreign tourists last year, who pumped about $9.5 billion into the local economy. Even though prostitution is illegal in the country, it is the lifeblood that sustains this city. "I first came here in 1999, and as soon as I got out of the taxi, I was hooked," said Robert "Bobby" Pritchard, who worked as a bricklayer in Bristol, UK, before moving to Pattaya this year. Bobby admitted it's "party, sex, girls" drawing most of the men who visit this tropical holiday hub. "I think men get a bum deal in the UK personally. If they're in a bit of a boring marriage, let's say, an unhappy marriage, they're just going to work nine to five, 60 hours a week. They come here and they get attention. They get women throwing themselves at them," he told Foreign Correspondent. "What if they come here and pay for a bit of love? Is there anything wrong with that? … They're just having a bit of fun, in my eyes." Whether you agree, or agree to disagree, sex tourism is a fact of life in Pattaya, generating income for everyone from local baristas and taxi drivers to property developers. "It's extremely important, absolutely indispensable … It's number one," said Mother Aood, 72. She was a sex worker for decades after arriving here 50 years ago from a small village in north-eastern Thailand. "Everyone knows why people come to Pattaya. Some come for sunbathing, but the main reason is definitely the women, for sure," she said, while playing pool in the Walking St bar she now manages. "In the old days, there were tailor shops, Indian fabric shops, things like that. There were also jewellery shops, but now it's bars, beer bars, and nightclubs." As tourist numbers increased over the years, so did the competition for their dollars. By some estimates, there are about 50,000 sex workers living in Pattaya. Many come from impoverished farming communities in rural Thailand, while others are lured from neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. "There are far more women now, and new generations of young girls keep coming every single year," said Mother Aood. "They want to change their life. They want to make money and work to give themselves a better life, for their families and for themselves." The body in the suitcase In June, Tunchanok Donhomla boarded a bus in her hometown of Kalasin, in north-eastern Thailand, and travelled nearly 600km to Pattaya, telling her family she was going on a short holiday. The 17-year-old, affectionately nicknamed "Cake", worked as a waitress and sometimes sold garlands on the street to support her father and stepmother while trying to finish school, according to a former teacher. In the early hours of June 27, her naked body was found in a suitcase dumped along railway tracks. "We unzipped the zipper slightly and looked inside, we saw what appeared to be a human body inside the suitcase," said Suttipong Boonmachay, a rescue volunteer who found the body. "We were shocked." According to police and CCTV, the teenager had met Australian man Simon Carman, 45, two days earlier along Beach Rd. The pair then went to his apartment. What happened next is disputed and will soon be tested by a Thai court. Mr Carman claims Cake offered him sexual services. Her family denied that she was a sex worker. Once in his apartment, Mr Carman claims they physically fought over money. "I give her 500 baht ($21) for, like, literally nothing. And she wanted more money and that's when she pulled the knife," Carman said in an exclusive interview with Foreign Correspondent while in detention at Pattaya Remand Prison. "She had a knife to my throat on the left-hand side with her right hand. "I consistently told her to 'put down the knife, put down the knife, put down the knife, please'. And she didn't. And when she eventually did, she went limp. "I checked her pulse and she wasn't breathing." Prison authorities allowed the ABC to interview Mr Carman on the conditions that we obtained his permission, officials were able to review the footage, and we refrained from discussing prison conditions. Mr Carman said he was unaware that Cake was 17 when he met her. Loading...When asked why he left Cake's body in a suitcase near railway tracks, he replied, "I didn't want the body in my condo, and I didn't know what to do with the body because I could not phone the police and I didn't know what to do, honestly." "I feel deeply sad. I obviously wish it never happened, but it was unavoidable. All I was trying to do was restrain her from stabbing me." Mr Carman has been charged with four offences, including murder, concealing a corpse, and abducting a minor over 15, but under 18, for indecent purposes. He faced Pattaya Provincial Court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was denied bail after prosecutors argued he could try to flee the country. If convicted of murder, he faces life imprisonment or the death penalty. Protecting a billion-dollar industry Ms Cake's death, and the circumstances surrounding it, have unnerved many locals in Pattaya. But months on, the focus is on protecting tourists and the billions they bring in. "It's truly heartbreaking, given that the young girl was not very old. And then she lost her life right in the city that is under my jurisdiction," said Police Colonel Anek Srathongyoo, the Superintendent of Pattaya City Police Station, who spearheaded the investigation into Cake's death. "I think the two of them might have had some misunderstanding, which led to an accidental altercation that caused the young girl to pass away. "All tourists who come are good people, but it depends on what kind of situation they encounter. There's no need to worry about this. Pattaya is still a safe city and it's still worth visiting." Yet by the police's own estimates, foreigners are involved in almost one out of three criminal incidents here. Gigi said the police do respond to complaints sex workers file about abuse, but the burden of proof is often too high for them to meet. "In every situation that happens, we need to have evidence before they'll believe us. Most of the time, if we don't have evidence, they don't really believe us," she said. After working all night, Gigi managed to find only the one customer from Dubai and made around $80. For women like Gigi, the risks are ever-present. But there seem to be few alternatives. "I really want to rest right now, but I can't. If I go back home, there are no jobs. Going back home just means working in the fields in the village. "It's dangerous, but it's my job, so I just have to accept it." Watch 'Surviving Sin City' tonight on Foreign Correspondent, 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.