Teens face court over prostitutes' deaths

[think_too_mut]

4-5 months ago 2 Thai women were found dead floating in the Adelaide river in Northern Theritory (Australia). This is today's update on the investigation:

 

 

Darwin, August 3 2004

 

Teens face court over prostitutes' deaths

 

A Darwin court has heard that a teenager admitted in a police interview that he strangled two prostitutes and threw them into the Adelaide River.

 

Eighteen-year-old Darwin men Ben William McLean and Phu Trinh are each charged with two counts of murder.

 

The bodies of the two women, aged 27 and 58, were found floating in the Adelaide River, south east of Darwin, in March.

 

McLean and Trinh walked barefoot into the dock at the Darwin Magistrates Court today and looked around the courtroom throughout proceedings.

 

The court heard that a pathologist's report claimed the women had drowned.

 

But in his opening address, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rex Wild QC, said one of the teenagers admitted strangling both of the women before throwing them into the river.

 

Mr Wild said Trinh claimed he had carried out the killings on his own.

 

But Mr Wild told the court that McLean also admitted in a police interview to being involved.

 

Mr Wild said Trinh gave no specific reason for the killings but McLean said he had to satisfy a drug debt.

 

Mr Wild said Trinh had called one of the women and arranged to meet her.

 

He said Trinh allegedly purchased zip ties and packing tape.

 

Mr Wild said that when the women's bodies were found, their ankles and hands were tied and they had a red rope around their necks.

 

He said both women had a car battery tied to their bodies.

 

The hearing continues.