Kompong Cham Provincial Court yesterday charged a 17-year-old boy with allegedly raping a 5-year-old girl in an empty bathtub in their Prey Chhor district village last Thursday, police and court officials said yesterday.
Provincial court deputy prosecutor Muong Sarin said the teenager was placed in pretrial detention at Kompong Cham Provincial Prison after being charged.
Prey Chhor district police chief Nuon Sa Morn said the suspect confessed to raping the girl because he wanted to know what it felt like to have sex.
“The suspect had heard about love and sex…and he wanted to try it to see if it was like what he had heard,” Mr Sa Morn said.
District penal police chief Buth Pises said the rape occurred at about 11 am on Thursday, near the girl’s home in Thma Poun commune, where the suspect had been lying in an empty, unused bathtub.
After persuading the girl to join him in the bath, the teenager had sex with the girl, Mr Pises claimed, adding that after the girl screamed out in pain, the boy ran away.
While the victim told her father straight away, he did not make a complaint to police until Sunday, Mr Pises said.
In a separate case, Battambang Provincial Court on Saturday charged a 26-year-old man with allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in Bavel district’s Ampil Pram Doeum commune last Wednesday, court and military police officials said yesterday.
Provincial court prosecutor Nuon San said suspect Chay Mai had been placed in pretrial detention at the provincial prison after being charged with rape.
Lieutenant Leng Vanna, Bavel district deputy military police commander, alleged that Mr Mai raped the young girl at about 11:30 pm on Wednesday while her parents were away from their village cutting bamboo.
While she was sleeping, Mr Mai put his hands over the victim’s mouth and strangled her so she could not scream, Lt Vanna claimed, adding that the girl fought back, trying to escape.
The Cambodia Daily has reported on 44 child-rape cases in 2011.
