A rice farmer was arrested in Kratie province on Sunday after his 14-year-old daughter told police he had raped her on multiple occasions, including earlier that day, officials said.
The 47-year-old suspect first raped the girl last year when she was helping him with farming and fishing duties near their home in Kratie’s Prek Prasap district, according to district police chief Chan Sophalla.
“In 2015, the suspect raped his daughter about five times over the course of one or two months when she went along with him to go farming or fishing,” Mr. Sophalla said.
After each attack, the police chief said, the farmer “threatened to kill her, so she never went to tell her mother about it.” He said the girl had worked for her father from a young age and never attended school, and he partially attributed her silence to this lack of education.
But the physical pain of the most recent assault, which took place on Sunday afternoon behind the family home in Sorb commune, spurred the girl to tell her mother about the abuse, Mr. Sophalla said, leading to the farmer’s arrest several hours later.
“We arrested the suspect on Sunday. The father raped the victim with force near the house, but she escaped and ran to tell her mother because she was hurt. Then they filed a complaint to police,” he said.
Under questioning at the district police station, the father denied raping his daughter, claiming he only ever expressed affection for her in the form of hugs and kisses, according to Mr. Sophalla.
Hout Kimheang, chief of the provincial police’s serious crimes bureau, said the farmer also denied assaulting his daughter during questioning at the provincial police station on Monday, but that a medical examination conducted on Sunday showed that she had been raped.
“He denied it was like she claimed, but the court will find out if he raped her or not,” he said, adding that the farmer would be sent to the Kratie Provincial Court today.
