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HK's South China Mornig Post: Horror story


bluescat

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Tuesday, August 3, 2004

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Australians admit dumping Thai women in croc-infested river: court

 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Darwin

 

Updated at 3.54pm:

Two 18-year-old men had admitted to police they murdered two alleged Thai-born prostitutes who were bound and thrown alive into a crocodile-infested river in northern Australia, a court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors told Darwin Magistrates court that Ben William McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh admitted killing the women, who were Australian permanent residents and had worked as prostitutes in Darwin for several years.

 

 

The bodies of Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, and Somjai Inssamnan, 27, were found by tour operators conducting crocodile-spotting cruises on the Adelaide River, 70 kilometres southwest of Darwin last March.

 

Prosecutor Rex Wild told the court the women had been weighed down with car batteries and thrown into the river with rope tied around their necks.

 

Wild said McLean and Trinh had bought cables, rope and packing tape before picking up the two women at a Darwin motel.

 

He said the men had consensual sex with the women before strangling them in the back of a car.

 

Mr Wild said Trinh claimed the women were dead when they were dumped in the river but forensic evidence suggested they drowned, meaning they were both alive when they hit the water.

 

"Maybe they were unconscious, we have to speculate about that," Mr Wild said.

 

He said McLean claimed the killings arose from a drug debt but prosecutors did not accept the explanation.

 

Mr Wild said AUD$1,800 (HK$9,900) was taken from Phuangsri's bank accounts around the time of the killings.

 

The accused fled to Queensland state after being questioned by police and were found hiding in the cupboard of a friend's house in a police raid, Mr Wild said.

 

McLean and Trinh are each charged with two counts of murder. They did not enter a plea and the hearing was to resume on Wednesday.

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