A Canadian man is scheduled to appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court today for allegedly having sex with at least five boys aged 10 to 13, a police official said Thursday.
Orville Frank Mader, 51, was arrested around 1 pm Tuesday at a taxi station near Phsar Thmei, after more than a weeklong police investigation, said Meng Say, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police’s anti-trafficking office.
He said police had received a tip off that Mader had been having sex with young boys.
Police tracked Mader Tuesday morning after he reportedly hired a motorcycle taxi driver to drop two boys off at the riverside near the Royal Palace, Meng Say said. Police brought the boys to the municipal police office, where they claimed they repeatedly had intercourse with the suspect.
After obtaining an arrest warrant, police then followed Mader from his house to the taxi station. Meng Say did not disclose where the suspect was headed.
Following his arrest, police raided the suspect’s rented house, where they found three boys, who told police they repeatedly had sex with Mader.
The boys claimed they were tricked by Mader, who lured them to his house to play a game. Once there, the suspect offered them each $2 to have sex with him, Meng Say said.
He added that police are looking into whether Mader had published pornographic images on the Internet. During their raid, they seized a computer at his home. “The [police’s] I T technician is searching the computer to take more evidence,” he said.
Meng Say said the boys were sent to local NGOs.
Police had initially planned to bring Mader to court Thursday to face debauchery charges, but rescheduled his court appearance for today.
“We don’t care so much whether he confesses or not but we have enough evidence to charge him,” Meng Say said. He said Mader is being detained by municipal police.
Canadian Ambassador Stefanie Beck said Thursday that the embassy was providing the suspect with “consular support.”
(Additional reporting by Wency Leung)
