A German national was arrested Friday and will be charged with debauchery after he was found in a hotel room allegedly taking obscene photographs of a naked 14-year-old girl, said police from the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection.
Thomas Jansai, 39, was arrested Friday afternoon in his room at Phnom Penh’s Queen Hotel after a neighbor complained to the municipal police, Anti-Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Minor Office Chief Meng Say said Sunday.
Jansai has refused food since his arrest and was taken Sunday to a private medical clinic for treatment of stomach pains and heart palpitations, police said.
In a confession police say was penned and signed by Jansai, the accused states that he came to Cambodia as a tourist.
“A taxi driver offered me a girl and [the brothel owner] guaranteed that the girl is of legal age (18)…the girl verified to the police in the hotel that she is 18.”
A receptionist at the hotel who was present during the arrest but asked not to be named said that when Jansai left the girl in his hotel room, the girl came down from the room and made a phone call. She then returned to the room and some 20 police officers arrived shortly after.
The receptionist said that it was not the neighbors who complained to the police, but the girl’s mother.
Police say they confiscated a digital camera, a lighting apparatus and sex toys during the arrest. In his confession, Jansai admitted to taking pictures of the girl posing with “love toys” and sending them to an address in Austria.
“I don’t know what I am getting charged for,” the confession said.
The girl found with Jansai was released Sunday morning to her parents, Meng Say said.
Jansai—whose passport indicates this is his third visit to Cambodia—declined to comment on Sunday, saying only, “I’m not guilty.”
