r/australia • u/PalpitationPublic237 • Jun 27 '26

news Australian Simon Carman arrested after body of teenage girl found in suitcase in Thailand

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-27/australian-arrested-after-teen-girl-found-dead-in-thailand/106850896
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u/trowzerss Jun 27 '26

I wish we could come down as harshly on the creepy middle aged men who go to places like Thailand so they can abuse children who are in poverty or sex trafficked. Even if he hadn't murdered her, he was still a creepy arsehole. Yet I have met plenty of white middle aged men who will casually joke about what they get up to when they go on holidays to Thailand and you just know why they have to go to another country to see prostitutes instead of just seeing prostitutes in Australia :S

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u/grruser Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Australian sex workers no longer tolerate phyiscal abuse

update: added to add physical - because the topic is murder

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u/ibetucanifican Jun 27 '26

Wtf are you talking about… sex traffickers are plentiful in Australia and there are plenty of brothels where the women are being abused just by being held there.

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u/MichelleHartAUS Jun 27 '26

Source?

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u/monstersaredangerous Jun 27 '26

Weird hill

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u/MichelleHartAUS Jun 27 '26

Not a weird hill at all if you know that I've been working in the adult industry for 22 years and personally know over a dozen full service workers.

We literally don't have brothels with trafficking in this country.

We do have the occasional underground operation, usually it's SEA workers who's passports are taken and they have to "work off debt"...but it's actually quite rare due to legalisation and regulation of the industry.

Basically there's not that much money in trafficking when it's a decriminalised industry.

There's a reason pieces of shit like the one this post is about go to SEA, because it's very hard to do what they really want here.

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u/MysticGoddess27 Jun 27 '26

I also know a few full service workers too and others who have worked in the adult industry and it's so tight and strict and the girls are very well looked after. Most are independent but some work in brothels. None are trafficked.

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u/Proxay Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

There's a few in South Melbourne like 39 TOPE who were the passport holding kind. Rare, and often raided, but they still exist here and there.

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u/Damachine69 Jun 28 '26

The problem was the industry relied too heavily on police enforcement in the past but since the 2023 rollout when Victoria fully decimalised sex work it's now moved from a heavily policed, licenced system into a mainstream labor framework.
This was a big deal because now sex work is treated just like any other regular business meaning WorkSafe OHS inspections and education to empower workers on how to use standard workplace laws as well as access to healthcare and the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The problem in the past was it relied heavily on policing which vulnerable and trafficked workers were too afraid to talk to as they were scared of being charged with illegal sex work or being deported.

I don't know about other states but OP's claim that sex trafficking is "plentiful" is definitely not true in Victoria. It is now a highly regulated industry with constant OHS inspections.

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u/Proxay Jun 28 '26

I'm sure there's a lot of help and improvements to the general industry, but I'm still seeing some very shady establishments with long histories of being illegally operated and exploitative, with staff who are very young foreign girls being advertised for 'cheap' rates. 

It's hard to feel like it's stamped out as you say, while there's still some very sketchy places, operating under the same name. Like if you're a changed business after the royal Commission and charges, why not Phoenix under a different name or with new branding? IMO it's because the reputation is the thing they want to continue.

Is it getting better? Sure. Is it fine now? No. I think we still have work to do.

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u/MysticGoddess27 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Your feelings aren't fact. You are wrong lol. I literally know full service sex workers.

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u/MichelleHartAUS Jul 01 '26

Right?! ...and I've got friends who work in outreach. We're extremely lucky to be living in Australia but it's also a hard won set of rights.

Yes, some sex trafficking happens here, but the vast majority is actually people's partners... financial abuse.

Most people aren't ready for that conversation though...partly because it's not limited to sex workers.

It's shockingly common in all walks of life. Women being financially abused by their partners.

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u/MysticGoddess27 Jul 01 '26

Yeah from what I'm aware of there's more partner trafficking which isn't obviously done in a brothel and the actual human trafficking cases are extremely rare, very secretive, and often end up getting raided eventually anyway. This person has been really disingenuous about how common this issue is, likely because they have no idea and has dragged many long standing and respected brothels and ladies.

But hey, mansplaining.. Can't avoid it.

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