A British national and convicted pedophile, who served about three quarters of his two-year sentence for child sex abuse, will be deported to the U.K. by the end of the week, an immigration official said Sunday.
Richard Fruin, 38—who arrived in Cambodia to work as an English teacher after serving a year in prison in his home country for producing child pornography—was arrested in October 2013 at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, where police found him with an 8-year-old boy.
In March 2014, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced him to two years in prison for sexually abusing the boy and his two brothers, 10 and 11.
Uk Heisela, chief of investigations at the Interior Ministry’s immigration department, said Sunday that Mr. Fruin was transferred from Prey Sar prison to a holding cell at the department’s headquarters earlier this month.
“He is in my detention,” Major General Heisela said. “We are waiting for his travel documents. The [British] Embassy already came to meet me and will issue the travel documents for him.”
Bryony Matthew, a spokeswoman for the British Embassy, said she was not authorized to comment on the case.
Maj. Gen Heisela said he did not know why Mr. Fruin did not serve his full sentence.
However, Samleang Seila, country director for child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, which assisted police in their 2013 investigation into Mr. Fruin, said the Appeal Court reduced his sentence.
“At the Appeal Court, his sentence was reduced by six months because he confessed to his crime, so the judge believed he would not reoffend and he promised not do it again,” Mr. Seila said.
“We believe that he had a high potential [to reoffend] and posed a great danger to children, and this is why we are happy he will be registered back in the U.K.,” he added.
In 2005, the U.K.’s Gloucester Crown Court charged Mr. Fruin with producing child pornography. He then skipped bail and fled the country for seven years, traveling to Africa and Southeast Asia.
Upon returning to the U.K. in 2012, Mr. Fruin was again arrested and sentenced to a year in prison. After his release, he flew to Cambodia.
