Kim Long Rim denies murdering Thea Kheav, then 21, at a house party

A young father has denied allegations he murdered a man in Adelaide’s north shortly before moving overseas for nearly two decades.

A young father who allegedly fled overseas for nearly two decades after murdering a man at a northern suburbs party has officially denied he had anything to do with the killing.

Kim Long Rim, who flew to Cambodia in the months after allegedly murdering a man in 2007, appeared via video link from prison in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Rim, formerly of Salisbury North, left Australia in 2007, shortly after the alleged killing of then 21-year-old Thea Kheav, but claims he didn’t “abscond” to get away from the impending murder charge.

Detectives lead Kim Long Rim through Adelaide Airport after he was extradited from Melbourne on Saturday over the 2007 murder of Thea Kheav. Picture: Riley Walter

Mr Kheav was murdered at an 18th birthday party in Parafield Gardens on December 1, 2007 after an incident involving his brother and another group at the event.

The group left the party, but later returned and fatally stabbed Mr Kheav.

Chansyna Duong, Tuan Kiet David Huynh and Rotha Sem were in 2011 sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years over the death.

Mr Rim was arrested in May after arriving in Melbourne from Cambodia – his home for the past 17 years.

During an earlier bid for bail, Angelina Pascale, for Mr Rim, told the court that her client had left for Cambodia due to the breakdown of a bad relationship in 2007 – not because of the investigation – and that his family had sent him away to “sort his life out”.

Ultimately, the magistrate in that hearing failed to find that was a strong enough reason to release Mr Rim from custody.

On Wednesday, when asked to answer the murder charge, Mr Rim said he was not guilty of the crime.

Thea Kheav was killed at a house party in 2007. Picture: Supplied

He will now stay behind bars over Christmas, ordered to face the Supreme Court in February where a date will likely be set for trial.

Mr Rim was identified as a suspect in the murder six months after Mr Kheav’s death, by which time police allege he had fled to Cambodia.

In 2008, he was arrested in Cambodia but released three months later after the Cambodian Supreme Court rejected detectives’ application to have him extradited to SA.

His lawyer previously told the court her client had only returned to Australia because his child in Cambodia was unwell.

“That child vomits blood on a regular and daily basis and is required to hospitalised regularly. There is no such thing as Medicare in Cambodia,” she said.

“He was not making the amount of money required to cover the cost of the hospital admissions and as a result, he and his wife made the decision that he would return to Australia, as a mature man to work. There were plans for his wife and his son to come and live in Australia on a permanent basis, but until then he would send money back to them.”