A man who returned from working in Thailand last week with a horrific tale of his wife’s gang-rape and murder is now behind bars for allegedly making the whole thing up.

Sao Veasna, an officer of the Cambodian-Thai border relations office, said that police tracked down and arrested Sareth on Thursday night on allegations of filing a false police report.

The arrest followed an investigation by Thai police and Cambodian consular officials in Thailand that found no evidence to suggest his wife had been raped by a group of some 20 Thai men, then killed and dismembered as he claimed.

What’s more, he wasn’t even married.

“The Cambodian consul searched for this information with Thai authorities and found that it is not true what her [boyfriend] claimed, and that is why police arrested him for questioning,” Veasna said.

Veasna said that during questioning, Sareth admitted to being angry with his girlfriend – who he referred to as his wife, and who police say is alive and well in Thailand – because she had left him.

The story, he added, was concocted in an attempt to ruin her reputation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sen David at [email protected]