Kandal Provincial Court on Tuesday charged a 27-year-old man with raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Khsach Kandal district, officials said.
Min Savuth, 27, was arrested in Prek Takov commune on Monday after allegedly raping the 8-year-old twice this month and once in June last year, district deputy police chief Ornn Yong said.
“The suspect confessed to raping his stepdaughter three times,” Mr Yong said. Savuth allegedly raped her “once at home when the victim’s mother was out at the market and twice by the stream close to their house where they went to fish and bathe.”
The victim told her mother about the alleged rapes after being scolded and hit by her on Monday for refusing to ask her stepfather to join them for lunch or buy him cigarettes, Mr Yong said, noting that her aunt filed a police complaint. “The suspect threatened the victim, saying he would kill her if she told anyone, and she was afraid to tell her mother.”
Chhiev Rendy, provincial court clerk, confirmed that Mr Savuth was put in pretrial detention.
Separately in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet city, rights group Adhoc yesterday opened an investigation into local media reports of the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl.
Adhoc’s provincial coordinator Soum Chankea yesterday said the organization was investigating local media reports of a man informing Poipet City police Monday his 16-year-old sister was allegedly raped.
Because the brother declined to talk to Adhoc, Mr Chankea said he did not know if the rape occurred, and police had not begun an investigation. “Police should not wait like this,” he said.
Poipet City police chief Um Sophal said the man and his 16-year-old sister, who has mental health issues, did not officially file a complaint or answer questions coherently. “If the victim does not file a complaint [by completely documents], it is very hard to investigate,” Mr Sophal said.
In another separate case, Kandal Provincial Court yesterday released a 21-year-old man arrested on Monday after a 16-year-old girl’s father reported that she was allegedly raped in Takhmao city’s Doeum Mean commune, officials said.
The girl appealed for 21-year-old Tom Saradin’s release because they had consensual sex, Kandal provincial prosecutor Ouk Kim Sith said. “I released him from provincial custody already,” Mr Kim Sith said.
Ros Savin, chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking department, said that the father filed a police complaint after walking in on the couple having sex. The pair “really love each other and commit to live together,” Mr Savin said.
The Cambodia Daily has reported 18 child-rape cases this year.
