Police sent a 28-year-old man to the Pailin Provincial Court on Friday for the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl, while a 40-year-old man was arrested Thursday in Kratie province for the attempted rape of a 13-year-old, officials said.
On Sunday and Monday, four men were arrested in three separate child rape cases, while the U.N. this week released a survey in which 1 in 5 Cambodian men had admitted to having raped a woman or girl, a crime still under-reported in the country due to fears of social stigmatization of the victims.
Pailin provincial penal police on Thursday morning arrested Khin Than, 28, for allegedly raping his neighbor’s daughter, an 11-year-old girl, from Sala Krao district’s Stung Kach commune, penal police chief Chham Vannathy said.
“We arrested the suspect at 9:15 a.m. [Thursday] at the suspect’s house after we received a complaint from the victim’s family,” Mr. Vannathy said, adding that the complaint was filed Tuesday.
Over the past months, the victim said that Mr. Than, the son of her parents’ landlord, had raped her a total of six times, each time covering her mouth with his hand so no one would hear her screams.
“She told us that she was raped six times already but she was too afraid to tell anyone because the suspect threatened to kill her,” Mr. Vannathy said.
After the sixth rape, the victim confided in a friend, who then told the girl’s parents about the attacks, he said.
Mr. Than admitted to having raped his underaged neighbor once, and having attempted to rape her on five previous occasions, police said.
“Police questioned him and the suspect admitted that he raped her once, but he said the other five times were just attempted rape,” Mr. Vannathy said.
In a separate case, police in Kratie province’s Sambor district arrested 40-year-old Horn Bunheang for the alleged attempted rape of a 13-year-old girl, district deputy police chief Chhin Sambor said.
“The suspect drove his motorbike to the market to sell fish when he saw the girl sitting in her house by herself,” Mr. Sambor said, adding that the suspect then approached the girl and started to molest her.
“Then the victim screamed, so the suspect fled on his motorbike,” he said.
Mr. Bunheang admitted to the attempted rape and will be brought to the provincial court over the weekend, Mr. Sambor said.
