An Italian man was arrested on Monday in Poipet after being accused of sexually molesting three young boys. He has been detained since his arrest and is being held in the Banteay Meanchey prison, court officials said.
Luigi Falchi, 28, allegedly paid four older boys to bring him the youngsters, aged 10, 11 and 12.
Falchi was charged with debauchery and faces between 5 and 15 years in prison, according to Nhoung Thol, chief prosecutor in Banteay Meanchey province.
Police also arrested the four teenagers who persuaded the three boys to visit Falchi’s guest house room, according to Som Sophin, deputy police chief of O’Chrov district. They were also charged with debauchery, he said.
Som Sophin said that Falchi had promised the three young boys he would give them $30 each in exchange for sex, and that the older boys would get a finder’s fee of $10. He said police were informed only after one of the older boys ran off with the payment without giving a young boy his cut. The youngster “ran to police because he was angry over the $40 that the older boy took away,” Som Sophin said.
A representative of the Italian consulate in Bangkok visited the prisoner Thursday to check on his condition and requested the authorities keep “their national in suitable condition and don’t detain him like the Khmer prisoners,” Nhoung Thol said.
Meanwhile, a French national, 44-year-old Pierre Ginot, is scheduled to be tried today in a Sihanoukville court for violating human-trafficking laws. He will be tried under anti-human-trafficking laws, Judge Tak Kimsea said. At the time of his arrest he was charged with illegally detaining people and weapons possession.
Ginot, 44, the former proprietor of a go-kart business in Sihanoukville’s Mittapheap district, was brought into court two weeks after his arrest and asked to account for items confiscated from him. They included 182 incriminating VCDs , a handgun and his personal computer, said to contain visual evidence of his crimes.
