A man in Samraong district, Oddar Meanchey province, raped a woman on Nov 22 to avenge the violation of his underage daughter the previous day by his victim’s husband, provincial police Chief Ath Khem said Thursday.
Pich Roeun, 30, sexually assaulted the 14-year-old daughter of his neighbor Neng Sa Ath on Nov 21, Ath Khem said.
Neng Sa Ath responded in kind, forcing himself on Pich Roeun’s 38-year-old wife in her Kaul Kreal commune home while her husband was away, Ath Khem said..
The two men, both farmers, were arrested on Nov 27 and jailed in Siem Reap prison, Ath Khem said.
“This was a bizarre thing in Oddar Meanchey province for such rapes to happen,” the police chief said. “I have never seen this.”
He added that there was a second rape on Nov 21 in Samraong district involving a 16-year-old girl.
In neighboring Banteay Meanchey province’s Malai district, police sent Chum Poeun, 47, to the provincial court on Monday to be tried for the rape of his step-daughter, district deputy police Chief Sao Bun said Thursday.
Chum Poeun allegedly assaulted the girl, 13, at about 10:30 pm on Nov 29 while she was sleeping with her younger brother under a mosquito net.
A report issued in October by the local rights group Adhoc suggests that rape in Cambodia is on the rise for the third year in a row.
Adhoc Director Thun Saray suggested at the time that the main cause for the increasing trend is the impunity most rapists enjoy. Of 178 cases recorded between March and August, suspects were arrested in only 40 percent of them.
In 78 percent of those cases, the victims were younger than 18. Half of them were between the ages of 3 and 10, the report said.
