The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a British national to eight years in prison for sexually abusing four Cambodian girls between the ages of 6 and 11 in the capital last year.

Presiding judge Ly Sok Leng said that English teacher Michael Glyn Jones, 54, was ordered to pay an 8 million riel (about $2,000) fine and another 8 million riel to each of the victims after being found guilty of having sexual intercourse with a minor under 15 and committing indecent acts against a minor under 15.

“It is ordered that he be expelled soon from Cambodia when he has completely served the term of his imprisonment,” Sok Leng said, adding that Jones has the right to appeal.

Colonel Keo Thea, chief of the Municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit in Phnom Penh, said that Jones would lure the girls – who lived on the street – into his room with food and favours, and had come under scrutiny after a report from child protection NGO APLE.

However, Jones denied the allegations yesterday outside of the courtroom, and vowed to appeal.