A plantation worker was arrested in Kratie province on Tuesday for raping his 7-year-old daughter after returning home drunk from a party last month, police said.
Srim Tola, 35, was arrested at about 2 p.m. while at work on the cassava plantation in Sambor district and immediately confessed to raping his young daughter on the night of November 29, according to deputy district police chief Chhin Sambo.
“He said he could not control his feelings while he was so drunk,” Mr. Sambo said.
“No one knew the victim was raped until she got sick and complained of pain in her genitals,” he said, adding that the girl’s mother filed a complaint against her husband at the district police station on Tuesday, prompting his arrest.
“At first, the mother did not want to file the complaint because the suspect is her husband,” but did so at the urging of her neighbors, Mr. Sambo said.
Under questioning by police on Tuesday afternoon Mr. Tola said he raped his daughter at about 9 p.m. on November 29, while his wife was away, the deputy police chief said.
“Before the incident, the suspect drank too much rice wine with his friends, and when he came back, he raped his daughter, who was sleeping alone in the house,” he said, adding that he did not know why the child’s mother had been away at the time.
Huot Lim Heang, chief of the provincial police’s serious crimes bureau, said Mr. Tola was questioned and provisionally charged at the Kratie Provincial Court on Wednesday before being returned to police custody.
“He was provisionally charged with rape with aggravating circumstances,” he said, adding that the plantation worker would be brought back to the court today.
Mr. Sambo said the victim underwent a medical examination on Tuesday.
“After the suspect was arrested, we sent the victim to receive an examination at the provincial referral hospital and the result showed that she was raped,” he said.
