Twice acquitted of child sex abuse charges in Cambodia, Dutch pedophile Sebastiaan Reuijl has again been arrested and jailed, according to officials in Siem Reap province, this time for allegedly molesting a 4-year-old boy.
Mr. Reuijl, whose history of preying on young children stretches back to a 2004 conviction in the Netherlands, had been renting an apartment in Siem Reap City’s Svay Dangkum commune for the past three years, according to Duong Thavary, chief of the provincial police’s juvenile protection bureau.
Ms. Thavary said the 42-year-old was arrested on July 30 for molesting his 4-year-old neighbor on multiple occasions over the past few months.
“He always allowed the boy to play in his room,” she said on Friday, declining to provide further details about the case.
Yin Srang, spokesman for the Siem Reap Provincial Court, said Mr. Reuijl was charged on August 1 with committing indecent acts involving the boy, then sent to prison to await trial.
In 2004, Mr. Reuijl was convicted by a court in the Netherlands of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy who attended a sailing camp he ran at the time, and was later convicted of threatening and harassing the victim and his family, according to Dutch journalist Peter de Vries, who tracked the pedophile to Cambodia in 2010.
“He is a very dangerous person and nobody should [allow] him to be alone with children,” Mr. de Vries said later.
In 2011, Mr. Reuijl was arrested and charged in Siem Reap for allegedly molesting four boys and a girl between the ages of 7 and 13, but was acquitted the following year due to a “lack of proof,” according to a judge.
A week before his trial in August 2012, he sent a series of threatening emails to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights accusing the organization of colluding with child protection group Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) to exploit children and falsely accuse Western men of pedophilia in their quest for donor funds.
In one of the emails—which are full of derogatory and homophobic language—he said he was “determined” to punish APLE country director Samleang Seila for his actions.
Then, in 2013, he was arrested again for allegedly abusing two boys aged 6 and 9, and was once more acquitted due to a dearth of evidence.
Reached on Friday, Mr. Seila said the latest investigation into Mr. Reuijl, assisted by APLE, had turned up multiple possible victims, all of them young boys.
Mr. Seila said that despite APLE’s unsuccessful attempts to appeal Mr. Reuijl’s past acquittals, he was confident that the Dutchman would be convicted this time.
“I believe the current investigation is quite solid. Strong evidence has been collected against him so I am confident that this investigation will be successful,” he said.
