A defrocked monk is scheduled to appear for questioning in Kompong Speu Provincial Court today on allegations that he raped a 13-year-old girl, police said Tuesday.
Seang Chantha, 18, is accused of assaulting the girl inside the Trapaing Chhouk pagoda in Samraong Tong district around noon Saturday while the rest of the monks and nuns slept, said provincial police Chief Nop Oeun.
The girl had been brought to the pagoda by her aunt to help serve the monks, said Phat Kimhong, Samraong Tong district police chief.
Seang Chantha was arrested at his mother’s house in the district’s Pneay commune shortly after the attack, Phat Kimhong said.
“It is a bad act that he went into monkhood to serve…and instead he raped the girl,” Phat Kimhong said.
In a separate case, Kompong Thom provincial police are searching for a 41-year-old man accused of impregnating his 17-year-old stepdaughter and attempting to kill his wife, according to a human rights worker.
Kun Sitha, Adhoc’s women’s section chief for Kompong Thom province, said the victim has aborted the fetus and has been sent to the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center in Phnom Penh.
