IN a darkened room off a backstreet, a prostitute reveals how sordid Brit holidaymakers pay her to take their sons’ virginities in sick ‘initiations’.
It is a grim window into the dark heart of the holiday hotspot’s sex industry, where desperate men known as ‘Losers Back Home’ treat vulnerable young women like throwaway dolls and disturbing drugs like Rohypnol can be bought over the counter as easily as cough syrup.
Zara McDermott tells The Sun about her harrowing journey into the holiday hotspot’s seedy sex trade[/caption]
The Love Island star met sex workers in the nation’s infamous red light districts[/caption]
She also visited clubs in the city dubbed Asia’s ‘sex capital’[/caption]
The sun-soaked nation – whose stunning beaches belie an seedy underbelly of drugs, cheap sex and alleged murder cover-ups – is the subject of a gritty new BBC documentary by Zara McDermott.
In Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise, the Love Island and Strictly star, 28, visits Bangkok and Pattaya, dubbed the “sex capital of Asia”, where she clashes with controversial ‘content creators’ cashing in on the illicit trade.
Even more chillingly, she talks to the grieving family of a young Brit mysteriously found dead on a Thai beach, who fear authorities are covering up murders to protect the tourism industry.
During her travels, Zara was even nearly arrested when local bar owners objected to her filming and cops demanded that they wipe all their footage.
Recalling the harrowing ordeal, she tells The Sun: “It was a scary experience to be on the wrong side of the police.
“One of the crew had an ashtray thrown at her head, it was an incredibly hostile environment.”
But, she says, her close-call pales in comparison to the dangers faced by the thousands of vulnerable young women working in the nation’s notorious red light districts.
Opening up on requests she receives from tourists, the sex worker in Bangkok tells the documentary: “The British men are cute, handsome. I like them.
“They are young boys, mostly teenagers. They are shy, it’s like they come to learn about sex.
“Sometimes they come with their father, they let us take care of them.
“For most of my customers, it’s a fun party, drinking, shopping, eating, hanging out. Sometimes sex only comes after. I agree on how long I will stay with them.”
She adds: “I had family problems. I didn’t have a boyfriend and I had a child, raising my child alone. We have to pay for our family’s care.
“A month of working as a chef, it probably won’t be more than £560 per month. But if you work at night, like this, you might earn about £560 per week.
“If we work normally we definitely won’t have enough.”
Zara says afterwards: “It’s slightly jarring to hear about the young Brits and their dads paying a sex worker to teach their sons the ropes. It’s a bit weird.
“But you’ve got to have so much respect for these women and the risks they take night on night to make a living for themselves and their families.”
They are young boys, mostly teenagers. They come to learn about sex. Sometimes they come with their father
Thai sex worker
Another sex worker called Annie also speaks to Zara about her experiences with British men – including one who left her heartbroken.
Noting such tourists come to Thailand to exercise “power they don’t have at home”, the presenter’s comments echo those made in the hit TV drama The White Lotus, which coined the phrase “Losers Back Home”.
In the HBO show, whose third series was set in a luxury five-star Thailand hotel, Chloe (played by Charlotte Le Bon) remarks: “You’ll notice a lot of bald white guys in Thailand. The locals call them LBHs – Losers Back Home.”
The sex worker tells Zara: “I was 17, working in a factory. I had a boyfriend who cheated on me. He had sex with my older sister when our child was only two months old.
“So I decided to come to Pattaya and work as a bar girl.
“I wanted to meet foreigners. I didn’t want to have relationships with Thai men anymore.”
Zara met controversial ‘content creators’ cashing in on the sex trade, like Brit YouTuber Mac[/caption]
She spoke to girls working in seedy bars who wanted British boyfriends[/caption]
“I want to have a foreign boyfriend. I want to have a better life.
“Most of them want to have a holiday girlfriend. When they go back they act like nothing happened.
“But some people who are lucky will find a man that will take care of them and marry them.
“I was the unluckiest, that’s all.
“It started with him being a customer for two or three weeks and after that he liked me, so he didn’t want me to work anymore, so we agreed on how much monthly money he would give me.
“Then I found out that he got a Thai woman in England pregnant and it was like the world had stopped rotating.”
Following their tearful chat, Zara says: “I feel that Annie’s been pretty much heartbroken.
“The women here, they’re emotionally and financially trapped to this job. I saw this industry as more transactional but the women within it are actually looking for love to pull them out of this scenario.
“It feels like the men coming here have a power they don’t have at home and it comes at a cost to the women on the streets.”
‘Murder’ riddles
The documentary also sees Zara delve into the dangers for Brit tourists in the travellers’ paradise.
In January, Regan Kelly’s naked body washed up on Pattong Beach, and Zara chatted with his devastated sister Laurie in a bid to piece together what happened during his final hours.
Laurie fears her brother’s death has been dismissed as accidental drowning, without a proper police investigation, and questions remain about what happened to Regan after he left a local nightclub, following a minor altercation.
In an emotionally charged interview that leaves them both in tears, Regan’s sister Laurie tells Zara: “He wanted to make it there for the New Year’s Eve party, he was updating us and saying how fabulous it was.”
Regan arrived in Phuket with a friend and planned to spend a month travelling across the country.
Regan Kelly, 28, travelled to Phuket from Selsdon, south London[/caption]
Regan with his sister Laurie, who believes he was murdered[/caption]
CCTV footage showed Regan leaving the hostel with an unknown man[/caption]
Laurie goes on: “We didn’t hear anything for two days, myself and my dad sent messages but there was only one tick.
“After two days we were posting on socials that Regan was missing and then obviously discovered that Regan had been found in the sea.”
Regan and her dad flew out to Thailand to find out what had happened.
She adds: “Regan was seen outside the hostel having a conversation with this guy that he’d met and then Regan gets up and leaves.
“I’m thinking he wants to go for a walk along the beach but what happens on that beach after I’m not sure because I’ve had lots of messages saying it can be quite a violent place at night, especially in the early hours of the morning.
“The police didn’t do much of an investigation if I’m honest, they just said it’s an accident.
“I feel like because it hit British media they’ve just opened and closed the case because they don’t want to put tourists off but I feel that someone knows what happened to Regan but they’re not sharing.
“I believe that my brother was murdered.
“It wasn’t an accident because when he was found he had a sock on his foot he would never have entered the sea with a sock on his foot – that just never would have happened.”
‘Stories like this make me scared’
Laurie and her dad did their own investigation and tracked down the man who discovered Regan’s body.
She adds: “He was very helpful. He drove out on a jet ski to him.
“He said ‘I held his hand and I drove him back to the shore’ which was hard.
“The tourist police politely advised that if we continue asking questions we are stirring up a hornet’s nest. We have so many more questions.
“I feel like I’ve come back from Thailand and it’s completely changed me as a person. I can’t see how I’m ever going to get my head around it.”
Afterwards Zara says: “That was really emotional. The whole time I was speaking to her I was putting myself in her shoes thinking, ‘How are you so strong?’ Because I would be in bits if that was my brother.
“It feels like Laurie and her family will never be able to close the book and it’s awful, awful.
“Stories like this make me scared to be in Thailand.
“No one’s sure whether he went for a swim or whether he was forced into the water. It could have been an accident but getting answers out here is pretty difficult, if not impossible.”
Zara and her team clashed with cops on Khaosan Road in Bangkok[/caption]
She also joined police on drugs raids in bars[/caption]
Free bird
Shortly before she started dating One Direction star Louis Tomlinson, 33, earlier this year, Zara described herself as ‘a free bird’ and flew to Asia for a month.
She was offered a £14 a night bunk in an eight-bed shared dormitory – but upgraded to a private en-suite room.
“I would struggle in a dorm with loads of smelly dudes,” she tells us. “There’s only so much ear plugs can do.
But for the documentary, Zara gamely throws herself into the hedonistic experience – downing shots on a bar crawl with drunken holiday makers.
She says: “It’s absolutely mental, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It’s pretty wild. You can literally smell weed everywhere.
“Cannabis has been decriminalised so I guess that’s part of the attraction, but it sounds like you can easily be caught out in Bangkok, it’s so intense.
“The rules are so different from the UK.”
I believe that my brother was murdered
Laurie Kelly
Zara also visited Pattaya, widely known as the sex capital of Asia, where she came across a colourful cast of characters.
Among them were solo traveller Loukas, who has a heated discussion with the presenter about the ethics of sex work, and Mac, who makes controversial online content with his girlfriend, who goes by the name of Beverly Hills.
Mac, 30, from Staffordshire, has been living in Pattaya for two years, giving his army of social media followers advice on how to handle sex workers in the resort.
Zara watches in amazement as donations pour in from subscribers.
“Mac and I are quite opposing in our views, especially regarding the sex industry which made for some tricky conversations,” she says.
“A lot of the women here are financially trapped in transactional arrangements. It’s their only option.
“I felt a bit angered by seeing women objectified in front of my eyes.
“There’s a pack mentality and a certain type of men who have outdated views about how they should feel superior to women and women should be submissive.
“It’s what a lot of travellers are looking for, it’s a bit stomach-churning.”
“I heard some horrific stories which made me completely petrified, like a sex worker being tied up by a customer who tried to force her to take a pill – she could have died.
“That’s the kind of thing that keeps you up at night.”
Cheap fake alcohol
Zara also joins thousands of travellers at a Full Moon Party, which is another eye-opening experience.
She says: “I was shocked at some of the cheap, fake alcohol that was on sale. Cannabis was incredibly easily accessible.
“I can see why people never want to go back to the UK – the prices, the freedom, the people, the lifestyle and the beauty of the place. It really does have it all.
“But that can come with other costs.”
Pattaya’s bawdy reputation hails from the Vietnam War when US GIs partied in their downtime[/caption]
Another upsetting moment for Zara was meeting Shakira, a young British woman who was arrested for buying sleeping tablets in a pharmacy.
Many pharmacies openly sell medication including Rohypnol over the counter, but due to complex restrictions, tourists can run into trouble if caught with them.
Shakira is now stuck in Thailand, while she awaits a hearing.
Zara said: “Meeting Shakira was a huge wake-up call, that someone could mistakenly and inadvertently get caught up in huge trouble.
“I still find it utterly confusing that some pharmacies in Thailand sell prescription medication over the counter, which Shakira was subsequently arrested for possessing.”
Zara says she is too old for backpacking herself now, explaining: “I’m in a different place in my life now. A perfect holiday to me is about the people I’m with.”
But when it comes to people she loves, she remains tight-lipped about her new romance – although she is wearing a delicate gold necklace with a small L-shaped charm for our interview.
Zara has previously fronted successful documentaries about stalking, revenge porn, rape culture and disordered eating.
She enjoyed tackling more light-hearted subject matter this time, saying: “There’s fun everywhere you turn in Thailand so it wasn’t difficult to capture that.
“However, it often comes at a huge cost. I’m always intrigued by the trade-offs, and I want to tell the stories of people who might be losing out from the ‘fun’ side.
“This series has some more of my personality injected into it, but at its core it asks important questions about the ethics of the sex industry.”
Watch Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise on BBC iPlayer now.
Loved-up Zara with One Direction star Louis Tomlinson[/caption]