Military police in Preah Sihanouk province arrested a man on Tuesday for allegedly raping a 6-year-old neighbor while her parents were away.
Tram Tav, 24, a fisherman living in Sihanoukville’s Buon commune within sight of the girl’s home, was arrested just hours after the victim’s parents filed a complaint with police, according to Var Chanthorn, chief of the provincial military police’s security and penal bureau.
“We arrested him at about 9 a.m. yesterday at his house and he is accused of raping a 6-year-old girl,” Mr. Chanthorn said yesterday.
Keo Sophal, the deputy provincial military police commander, said the girl’s parents left their daughter home alone on Monday when they went to work.
“When the victim’s parents left the house to sell fish, they left their daughter alone at home. That’s when the suspect had a good opportunity to go to the victim’s house,” he said.
Mr. Sophal said the young man entered the house at about 3 p.m. and found the girl asleep.
“When the parents came back home in the evening they saw their daughter looking strange and saw blood on her clothes, so they took her to the hospital,” at which point the girl told her mother what had happened, he said.
“We have enough evidence, and the suspect already confessed to raping the girl,” Mr. Sophal said, adding that Mr. Tav would be sent to the provincial court today to be charged with raping a minor, and would also be charged with drug use.
“We did a urine test and we found methamphetamine in his body; he told us he has been using drugs for two or three years,” the deputy commander said, adding that police were now searching for other drug users with whom the suspect may have connections.
“We are investigating the people he is involved with and will use what we learn from him to arrest the drug ring leaders. If there is drug use, there is drug trafficking.”
