A Chinese national stood before a judge yesterday, some nine months after he allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in the capital’s Meanchey district.

Loo Chintong, a 39-year-old finance manager for Global Taxi Company in Phnom Penh, was taken into custody in March, Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s presiding judge Sous Sam Ath said. He has been held in Prey Sar prison since his arrest.

“He forcibly raped an underage Cambodian girl … after the rape, he fled to China,” said Major Chea Chouk, chief of the municipal military police department’s anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection unit. “He was arrested when he returned from China to resume his work in Phnom Penh.”

On the morning of December 15, the victim’s parents left their daughter home alone to sell fish and vegetables at Chbar Ampov Market, the victim’s 43-year-old father, Ky Kimhong, said.

Kimhong and his wife rushed home at about 10:30am, when he received a phone call from a neighbour who said his daughter had been raped by a Chinese man named “Tong”, he said.

“When I arrived home, I saw my daughter unconscious on the bed in my house,” Kimhong said. “I saw blood and semen dripping onto her feet.”

Chintong knew the family, who sometimes sold him fish and vegetables out of their house, Kimhong said.

About a week after the alleged rape, two Global Taxi Company employees visited the family on Chintong’s behalf and gave them $350 in exchange for the family not suing him in court, Kimhong said. But the victim’s family is suing Chintong for $10,000.

“This man has seriously damaged my daughter’s honour and her reputation,” Kimhong said.

Chintong’s hearing will continue next month, Sam Ath said.