Prostitute killers get 25 years

Two teenage farm-hands were sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday for murdering two Thai-born prostitutes who were thrown bound and weighted into a crocodile-infested river in Australia.

The bodies of Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, and Somjai Insamnan, 27, were found in the Adelaide river, south of Darwin, in March last year by the crew of a crocodile-spotting tourist boat. They had been bound, weighed down with car batteries and thrown alive into the river but were apparently untouched by crocodiles.

Judge Dean Mildren of the Northern Territory supreme court said Ben McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh, who were 18 when they killed the women, were arrogant and believed they would not be caught. They initially confessed to police but retracted their statements. Mr Mildren said Trinh was the primary offender, having bought rope, cable ties and tape before picking up the women and taking them back to his parents' home for sex.

But he found that both defendants were involved in tying up the women, strangling them and tossing their bodies into the river. The women were found a few days later. The judge said the men made little effort to cover up their crimes, "probably because [they] did not really believe they were likely to be suspected, and possibly also because of sheer laziness", he said.

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