A 16-year-old boy was charged Wednesday in Battambang province with raping and viciously beating a girl he had befriended, leaving her close to death.
The suspect, who police said earlier this week was 18, was arrested in Battambang’s Thma Koul district on Monday morning after the girl, also 16, was found unconscious outside her house at about midnight.
The boy later confessed to knocking the girl unconscious, raping her and then pulverizing her face with the wooden handle of a hoe.
“The Court charged him with rape accompanied by torture or acts of cruelty,” deputy provincial police chief Chet Vanny said Wednesday, adding that due to the severity of the crime, Investigating Judge Yech Chheanavy had decided to remand the teenager to prison until his trial.
“For this offense, he could be imprisoned for between 10 and 30 years,” he said.
The victim, who police initially speculated would not survive the assault, remained in critical condition at the provincial referral hospital on Wednesday.
