Phnom Penh – On 5 October 2016, the Appeal Court pronounced a verdict against a 72-year-old Canadian national, Pierre Deslauriers, by upholding the Siem Reap Provincial Court’s decision in which he was sentenced to 7 years in jail, ordered to pay 10 million Riel to four civil plaintiffs, ordered his deportation and banned from entering Cambodia for 10 years after his jail term completion.
In November 2014, the Siem Reap Provincial Court sentenced Pierre Deslauriers to 7-year imprisonment for purchasing of child prostitution by article 34 of Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation from four boys aged between 10 and 14 years and ordered to pay 10 million Riel to four civil plaintiffs.
In February 2014, Pierre Deslauriers stabbed himself with a pocketknife when realizing police was arresting him; however, police could manage to break down the door and wrest the knife away before taking him to provincial hospital for medical treatment. The Siem Reap anti human trafficking and juvenile protection police then arrested Pierre Deslauriers on suspicion of sexually abusing minors.
One of the victim families welcome the Appeal Court’s upholding the decision. Moreover, Ms. Him Sophorn, APLE’s court support team leader who has been working directly with the victims, said that “Child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation really need long time and much support towards their recovery. However, the child victims in this case have been in a recovering process since 2014.”
