A British national arrested on Sunday for allegedly engaging in intercourse with an eight-year-old boy was officially charged yesterday, police said.

The officer, who asked not to be named, said the man, Richard William Fruin, 36, had been working as a teacher at the Universal English School in Phnom Penh.

“He was sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning and was charged this afternoon,” a police officer from the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit said.

“He was accused by our police of purchasing child prostitution. If he is found guilty, he faces imprisonment of between two and five years.”

Police on Monday said Fruin was arrested at a guesthouse in the capital’s Daun Penh district.

According to a report last year in the Gloucester Echo, a British newspaper, Richard Fruin pleaded guilty in court to 15 offences of making indecent images of children between January and November 2005.