Monk poses as husband

2005-01-21 14:37

Phnom Penh - A drunken Cambodian monk who jumped into a woman's bed posing as her husband was found out when she reached out to stroke her partner's hair and felt a shaven head instead, police said on Friday.

Police said monk Prak Rasmey, 25, had visited the family's home complaining he needed medical treatment for a swollen finger and, knowing the husband was an alcoholic and a gambler, rewarded him for his help with rice wine and money to play cards.

The scheming monk then returned when he was sure the husband was away gambling, and the wife, smelling alcohol on the interloper's breath in the dark, assumed the man who snuck into her bed was her boozing husband.

"The monk's pagoda was close to the home, and he knew the weaknesses of the husband," O'Chroy district police chief, Major Nuth Ly, of Banteay Meanchey province, 400 kilometres northwest of the capita said.

"He wanted the couple's 18-year-old daughter, but the girl woke up and ran to a neighbour's home without alerting her mother, so as he was drunk he just went to where the mother was sleeping," Nuth Ly said.

"She smelled alcohol on his breath and assumed it was her husband, as he is always drunk, and it wasn't until she caressed his head that she realised and saw his saffron robes in the darkness."

Prak Rasmey ran very quickly to the pagoda, but we went there and took him away to be disrobed, and now he is in the prison on charges of attempted rape, although it is a very complicated case.

"This district has many rapes, but never like this. We have investigated and we know he wanted to rape the girl, but he was too drunk to chase her so he tried to get the mother instead. Luckily, she realised before he got very far," Nuth Ly said. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA