The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Monday charged a man with aggravated murder for stabbing and killing a 12-year-old girl in a dispute over a traffic accident on Saturday, court officials said.
The man, Sman Vy, 26, who is deaf, became enraged at the victim, Tin Lany, and her friend, Ran Phally, 13, after they collided with his motorbike on a small dirt road in Tbong Khmum province’s Dambe district.
He attacked the girls with a metal file, stabbing Tin Lany in the shoulder, back and left armpit, and stabbing Phally 13 separate times, district police said.
Mr. Vy was charged Monday at the Kompong Cham court because Tbong Khmum, the country’s newest province, does not yet have a functioning court of its own.
“According to witnesses and the victim and evidence at the location, he was involved in the murder and injury of the underage girls, and we have accused him of murder under aggravating circumstances and sent [the case] to the investigating judge,” said deputy provincial prosecutor Plang Sophal.
Police have said that Mr. Vy became enraged after the accident when the girls were not able to pay him compensation. Tbong Khmum provincial police chief Mao Pov said Monday that it was possible that the girls had inadvertently used a rude gesture when attempting to communicate with Mr. Vy.
“It was hard for the girls to communicate with the suspect since they were young and they [did not know] what kind of gesture to use to ask for money and what gesture to use to say they did not have money,” he said.
Mr. Vy’s deafness had also made it difficult for police to question the suspect, Mr. Pov said.
“We did not know what he was trying to explain,” he said. “According to a villager who translated his gestures, he confessed that he stabbed the girls because he got angry with them because they did not give him the money.”
After being charged, Mr. Vy was detained in the Kompong Cham Provincial Prison, according to deputy Tbong Khmum police chief Chak Sok Kao.
