A married couple were charged with procurement of prostitution yesterday after allegedly luring two girls, ages 14 and 15, to Phnom Penh and forcing them to have sex with two young men in a hotel.

Ros Savin, chief of Kandal’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, said the huband, Chuon Chory, 45, and the wife, Bou Pov, 46, had been arrested following a complaint from the girls’ parents.

Several people in Kandal’s Takhmao town had told police that the couple had taken several girls to have sex with wealthy clients in hotels, but police were able to arrest the couple only after receiving a complaint directly from the victims’ family, Savin said.

According to the victims’ complaints, on May 18 the suspects invited them to a  restaurant, Savin said. But when they arrived in the city, the couple brought them to the Chhouk Tip II Hotel to meet two men who raped them.

The husband and wife allegedly threatened to kill the girls if they told their parents.

The girls’ parents, however, noticed that their daughters had been missing all night and saw that when they returned, they looked pale and shaken, Bandith said.

The girls explained what had happened, and the family submitted a complaint to the Takhmao town police.

The suspects and their defence lawyer could not be reached for comment yesterday.