Frenchmen held for Cambodia sex abuse

2011-03-09 15:32

Phnom Penh -Two Frenchmen have been charged with child sex offences in separate cases in Cambodia, officials said on Wednesday.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged 35-year-old designer and photographer Mathias Cassar with "producing and selling child porn on the internet", prosecutor Plang Sophal told AFP.

Cassar was arrested on Sunday as he was preparing to take pictures of three underage girls at a rented house in the capital Phnom Penh.

Cassar's Cambodian wife was also arrested and faces the same charges.

Plang Sophal added that Cassar is thought to have abused at least eight children, all aged five to 13.
The pair face up to 20 years in jail if convicted, he said.

In a separate case, 60-year-old Bernard Bouillier was on Sunday charged with sexually harassing three boys aged between 10 and 13 in the southern beach resort of Sihanoukville, said Suon Sophan, deputy chief of the town's anti-trafficking and juvenile protection unit.

Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a sex predators' haven.

Dozens of foreigners have since been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries.
 

- AFP