KANDAL On May 08, the Kandal provincial court charged a 78-year-old U.S. citizen with Purchase of Child Prostitution as stated under article 34 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, for the alleged sexual abuse he perpetrated against two underage boys aged 12 and 13. If found guilty, the suspect shall be punished with imprisonment from 7 to 15 years.
In February 2020, APLE received information about a foreign man approaching street boys and offering them money to give him company. APLE immediately referred this information to the Kandal provincial Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection police, requesting their investigation.
The police started collecting information and was able to identify the said foreigner and his victim. In May, the police arrested the suspect after obtaining disclosure from the victim. Another victim was found after the arrest. According to the police, the man confessed to having sexually molested the boy.
The police conducted a premise search led by the provincial deputy prosecutor, finding electronic items, including a mobile phone, camera, hard drive and gaming console which were confiscated for evidential purposes and further investigation.
The U.S. man is the 15th foreign national arrested in APLE initiated cases. All have been charged and jailed for sexual crimes against children in Cambodia since January 2018, given APLE’s expertise on the issue of Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism (SECTT); yet the majority of the sex offenders in Cambodia and those refereed to the police by APLE are Cambodians. In APLE’s statistics of local sex offenders related to child sexual exploitation, there are 21 Cambodians arrested in the same timeframe.
APLE Cambodia and its partner organisations will continue to work with the victims in order to ensure their emotional and physical recovery.
