A 17-year-old was charged with sexual assault yesterday by the Siem Reap Provincial Court for the alleged rape on Sunday of three of his cousins, all of whom were sisters and underage.

Siem Reap commune police chief Chem Chamnan said that on Sunday evening, the three victims were at home while their father was away for work when the suspect, Kang Doung, entered the house and allegedly committed the rapes, giving them 5,000 riel (about $1.25) each for their silence.

“The girls still told their aunt, and then the police came to chase him. They are too young,” he said. According to Chamnan, the sisters are 15, 11 and 10 years old.

Hoen Heang, an assistant to the commune chief, said that the girls’ mother was divorced from the father, hence the victims being home alone.

“They were girls in the house without older people. It is so dangerous. Now the girls were sent to a hospital with their relatives.

The father should not keep his daughters at home [alone] like that,” he said.