Kampot provincial police are searching for a 15-year-old boy who fled his home on Sunday after allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl multiple times last month in Chhuk district, police said yesterday.
The victim told police she was raped four times in August in the forest and in an abandoned home in Taken commune, said In Chiva, deputy provincial police chief. Neighbors discovered the 15-year-old and the shaken victim walking out of an abandoned home on Aug 27 and immediately alerted the victim’s mother, he said.
“We are waiting for the victim’s exam result from the doctor and for an arrest warrant from a court official,” he said. “Now the suspect has fled.”
According to the mother of the victim, a neighbor told her the 15-year-old confessed to raping her daughter four times and threatened to kill the victim if she told anybody.
The victim’s mother said she reported the rape to an influential military officer in Taken commune who subsequently attempted to negotiate a cash settlement on behalf of the suspect’s family for her to not go to the police. She said the general offered her $25 to $50 from the suspect’s family.
“I do not agree with [the] compensation, and I waited a week but still…[there was] no solution,” the victim’s mother said, referring to her request for more money. “I complained to…Kampot police.”
Nget Soseng, provincial coordinator for Licadho, said that the victim’s mother should have gone to the police immediately upon discovering the rape instead of trying to negotiate a cash settlement.
“It is a crime,” Ms Soseng said, and authorities need to “pay attention to make an arrest [of a] suspect who committed illegal acts.”
There should be no “compromise for compensation between [the] suspect’s family and victim’s family…[to] free suspect for his crime,” added Ms Soseng.
The human rights group Adhoc reported 300 rapes in the first seven months of the year–195, or nearly two-thirds, involving children. The Cambodia Daily has reported on 14 sexual abuse cases involving children since August.
