Source : Perth Now news
“We are poor but we will not trade my daughter’s dignity for money.”
These are the powerful words of the grieving father of murdered Thai teenager Tunchanok Donhomla, who has vowed to reject any compensation from the Perth man accused of killing his daughter despite his family living in poverty.
Perth’s Simon Peter Carman, 45, has been charged with murdering the 17-year-old, concealing and moving her body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes after her body was found stuffed inside a suitcase beside a railway line in Pattaya last week.
He denies the charges.
Under Thai law, those accused of serious crimes can offer compensation to victims’ families as a show of remorse, with payments sometimes resulting in reduced jail sentences.
But Tunchanok’s father Thongchai Donhomla said that no amount of money could ever replace his daughter.
“Even though I am poor, I will not trade my daughter’s dignity for money,” he told the ABC. “I love my daughter so much.”
The devastated family, from the north-eastern province of Kalasin, instead wants the criminal case to run its full course as they struggle to come to terms with the teenager’s horrific death.
Through tears, Mr Donhomla remembered his daughter — affectionately known as “Cake” — as “a good kid” who had endured an “unfortunate life”.
Her parents separated when she was an infant and she was largely raised by her great-aunt Mee Boonsert, who said the little girl called her mum.
“I am just like a mother to her,” the 75-year-old said. “She was an easy baby. We did not have much money to buy expensive formula milk.”
Mr Donhomla also spent time in prison while his daughter was young but said that he tried to rebuild their relationship after his release.
“She was a child who loved her father very much because she never had a mother since she was young,” he said.
Friends, relatives and teachers all described Tunchanok as cheerful, kind and hardworking despite growing up in difficult circumstances.
She switched to remote schooling so she could earn money to help support her family, working as a waitress and selling flower garlands during festivals.
Her former teacher Nilnart Kullajittisathorn described her as a bright student who dreamed of returning to full-time classes.
“But in the end, she couldn’t do it,” she said.
Hundreds of mourners gathered this week at a Buddhist temple in Kalasin to farewell the teenager, where relatives wept as monks conducted her cremation before her ashes were placed in a memorial wall.
Her uncle, a monk at the temple where Tunchanok once watered the gardens as a child, described the funeral as unlike any other.
“This funeral service is full of grief … this is too sudden,” he said.
Police allege that Tunchanok met Mr Carman on Pattaya’s Beach Road in the early hours of June 25 before accompanying him to his rented condominium.
Friends became alarmed when she failed to return and later went looking for her.
Her naked body was later discovered inside a suitcase dumped beside a railway line near Pattaya’s floating market.
The full circumstances surrounding why the 17-year-old travelled to Pattaya remain unclear.
Ms Boonsert has fond memories of the teenager.
She still sees the little girl she raised stopping to say goodbye before boarding a bus for Pattaya — never imagining it would be the last time.
“If I had known,” she said through tears, “I would not have allowed her to go.”
Now all the family wants is justice.
“We are poor, we have nothing,” Ms Mee said. “We can only rely on police now.”
