WHAT WAS CLAIMED
An Australian man accused of murdering a Thai teenager has been sentenced.
OUR VERDICT
False. The accused man is in custody and has not stood trial or been sentenced.
AAP FACTCHECK - Disinformation accounts on Facebook are exploiting the alleged murder of a Thai teenager to drive clicks to a website filled with advertisements.
Several foreign-run pages are pumping out disinformation relating to the case involving Australian Simon Carman, 45, who is alleged to have killed 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla in late June in the coastal city of Pattaya.
The teenager's body was found stuffed into a suitcase two days after CCTV footage showed the pair together at Carman's accommodation.
He was later arrested and charged with her murder. At the time of writing, he remains in custody awaiting trial.
Several Facebook posts, including one on a page called 'Today's Headlines', claim Carman has already been sentenced.
"A nationwide wave of outrage has erupted following the official sentencing of Simon Peter Carman!" the post reads.
The post prompts users to click a link to an article claiming the 45-year-old received a 24-month suspended jail sentence, a "token" financial penalty, and an order to work 150 hours of community service.
"Simon Peter Carman—the man at the center of one of the most agonizing and high-stakes legal battles in recent judicial history—walked out of court effectively a free man," the article reads.
Meta's transparency details show the page is managed by users in Vietnam.
Another false post from a page called The Feed Today links to a website claiming Carman was sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security facility and 200 hours of community service, and is eligible for supervised probation after six months as part of a plea deal.
However, his trial is yet to begin, with prosecutors in Thailand still waiting for police to finish investigating the case, according to an August 19 ABC News article.
Meta's page transparency information shows the Facebook page is managed by users in the United States and Vietnam.
Other disinformation Facebook pages have made similar claims that Carman has already been sentenced, including Australia Times and Anglo Transit.
Meta's page transparency information shows Australia Times is operated by users in Vietnam and Anglo Transit is operated by users in Vietnam and Cambodia.
The posts also include images created using artificial intelligence (AI), including one supposedly showing Carman smiling in court.
OpenAI's verification tool identifies this image as containing an invisible SynthID watermark that confirms it was created or edited using AI.
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