Brit teen lost in Thai jungle found alive after ‘eating insects’ to survive

A British teenager^[1] ate insects and tree bark for two weeks to survive after getting lost in a jungle.

It was feared that Lawrence Stallard Honour, 19, was lured into a scam compound, after he went missing on September 27 but in fact he had got lost in the Thai jungle while trying to cross into Myanmar^[2]. The computer whizkid was last seen leaving a hotel in Kanchanaburi, west Thailand, leading to a massive search by local police near the border.

And Lawrence was found at a temple in that province on Saturday, after reportedly living in the forest for 10 days, surviving only by eating ants and tree bark.

Police Colonel Santi Phithaksakul, superintendent of Sangkhla Buri Police Station, said he was told on Monday that the teenager was located at the Wat Tham Sawan Bandan temple.

He said: “The interrogation revealed that Mr Lawrence intended to go to Payathonzu in Karen State, Myanmar. He had planned to go through the Three Pagodas border pass on September 27, but the checkpoint had already closed.”

After he was unable to get across he was taken to a report but could not check-in to accommodation as he had no money for a room. And then he got lost in a forest when it became dark and his phone ran out of battery.

Alone and disoriented, the youngster claimed he wandered the woods for days, trekking through rough terrain as he scavenged for bugs and tree bark to survive. He eventually stumbled his way back to the Wat Tham Kaew Sawan Bandan temple, where he was rescued by the One Sky Foundation on October 11.

Officials said there were no signs the boy had been abused or trafficked. His British father, Julian Honour, and mother, Gulnara Fattakhova, have collected him from the rescue team.

Thai police had launched a search for Lawrence after he was last seen leaving a hotel in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, on September 27. His mother Gulnara had filed a report at the Pattaya City Police Station.

She told officers: “I checked my son’s email and found records of his movements in Kanchanaburi province, which was very worrying. He’s a very shy and quiet boy but he is excellent with computers. I’m afraid that he has spoken to people online and be tricked into going to one of these scam centers in Myanmar, where they don’t let people leave.”

Authorities have not yet clarified why Lawrence had been trying to cross over into Myanmar. Myanmar, formerly Burma, was plunged into armed conflict and civil war when democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was removed by a military coup in February 2021.

In the lawless environment, methampetamine production has flourished alongside call centre scam compounds operated by gangs that target people around the world^[5] with financial and romance scams.

In September 2025, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified nine targets operating in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, along with ten entities in Cambodia^[6], for their roles in large-scale scam operations.

The OFAC also imposed sanctions on the Karen National Army (KNA) and its leader Saw Chit Thu (and his sons), for involvement in cyber scams, human trafficking, and smuggling.

Serious human rights concerns have also been raised about how the centres are staffed. Reports from the United Nations, NGOs, and regional governments show that the way the gangs recruit, transport, and control workers often amounts to human trafficking and forced labour.

Evidence shows that the workers are often subjected to trafficking, cross-border abductions, forced labor and slavery-like conditions, physical abuse, torture, debt bondage and extortion.