A 6-year-old girl in Kompong Cham province was gagged, bound and raped so brutally on Sunday that she required stitches to repair injuries to her vagina, police and court officials said yesterday.
Chun Phanna, 22, was charged yesterday with raping the girl and stealing $20 and a mobile telephone from her family’s home in Kompong Siem district’s Koh Toantoem commune, deputy provinical prosecutor Moung Sarin said.
“He confessed that he went to the house to commit robbery…. Then he caught the victim to rape her,” Mr Sarin alleged.
District police chief Pak Cheat alleged that Mr Phanna went to rob the girl’s family home at about 4:30 am on Sunday morning, after noticing that the victim’s grandmother had gone to pick tobacco leaves at a nearby farm.
Mr Cheat said Mr Phanna had confessed to stealing money and a telephone from the house, before seeing that the girl was home alone.
“The suspect took the girl to rape at a tobacco farm, about 200 meters from her house,” he said, adding that Mr Phanna had allegedly used cloth to gag his victim and cord to tie her.
The girl was not found until dawn, when a local boy saw her while he was tending cattle.
“The victim was found lying on the ground naked and her sexual organ were flowing blood,” he said, adding that she had since received stitches for her injuries at the district hospital.
Police arrested Mr Phanna after finding him hiding in another villager’s house at about 8:40 am Sunday morning, Mr Cheat said.
Mr Cheat said it was the second rape case investigated by district police this year, adding that he believed children were usually targeted because they were vulnerable.
Thol Meng, deputy provincial anti-human trafficking police chief, said yesterday that 10 rape cases and one rape-murder had been recorded in Kompong Cham this year.
“The number of rape cases seems like a big amount since the beginning of the year…. We are trying our best to control this situation,” he said.
The Cambodia Daily has reported on 51 child rape cases this year.
