A 17-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather is in serious condition after attempting to take her own life, Phnom Penh police said yesterday.

The girl, who was still unconscious at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital yesterday, swallowed pills to kill herself Saturday evening, said Dangkor district police chief Yim Saran.

The girl’s stepfather, Rin, about 40, raped her in August 2012 and had  attempted to rape her again since then, claimed the girl’s former fiancé, 20, with whom the girl’s family had broken off her engagement a month after she was raped because she had lost her virginity.

The former fiancé’s mother, who was waiting alongside him for the girl to regain consciousness, told the Post, “Her mother told me she had been raped and said we should break off the engagement and consider them to be brother and sister.

“The victim’s mother told her that if they broke it off, it would avoid regret in the future.”

The girl’s mother had told her not to complain to authorities, promising to divorce Rin, but when no divorce occurred, the girl feared she would be raped again and went to live with her former fiancé’s family, the former fiancé’s mother said.

Just before Khmer New Year, however, the girl’s mother threatened to harm the fiancé’s family if the girl did not return home, the ex-fiancé’s mother said.

A few days after the threat, the girl visited relatives in Takeo province and asked them whether they would cry if she died, the ex-fiancé said.

Police chief Saran said he had deployed officers to arrest Rin but so far had been unable to find either the suspect or the girl’s mother and two half-brothers.

“Even her natural mother ran way from her,” said the former fiancé. “And there is no one [here for her] other than my mother and her neighbours”.

“Before she took the medicine, she asked me to be her friend, and I still pity and love her. I cannot abandon her, and I will wait for her to return to consciousness,” he said tearfully.