The Stung Treng Provincial Court on Tuesday charged a 70-year-old man with raping a 9-year-old neighbor in Sesan district, after the girl told her parents of the crime despite the man’s death threats.
Ban Puth was charged with raping the young girl on a number of occasions up to September 18. He was arrested Monday and has since confessed to both police and to the court, said deputy provincial prosecutor Sun Yeth.
“The court charged the offender with raping a child. Now we are detaining him in prison,” she said.
District police chief Hom Bunthel said police arrested Mr. Puth after the girl told her parents that he had taken her to see an animal trap near the village when no one was around and raped her, then threatened to kill her and her parents if she told anyone.
“The child did not dare tell her parents because she felt scared the man would kill her and her parents,” Mr. Bunthel said, adding that she changed her mind after later seeing the man in an argument with her parents.
“After knowing their kid was raped, the victim’s parents came to make a complaint to the Sesan district police,” Mr. Bunthel said. “After I got the complaint from the victim’s parents I ordered two commune police to bring the suspect to the district police.”
He said the victim told police Mr. Puth raped her four or five previous times, and that an examination showed her hymen was broken.
In the first half of this year, there were 37 rape cases in the country involving a child under the age
of 10, according to rights group Adhoc—an average of more than one case a week.
