A French national was charged yesterday with sexually abusing six boys under the age of 15 in Siem Reap town, authorities reported.

Duong Thavry, chief of Siem Reap province’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, told the Post yesterday that 58-year-old Marcel Morin was arrested on Saturday at a guesthouse in Svay Dangkum commune.

“He is a French national who had sex with boys,” Duong Thavry said, adding that he had sexually abused “many Cambodian boys” before being arrested.

Morin allegedly abused four street boys between the ages of 11 and 13 on his first visit to Cambodia in 2007.

However, authorities did not have enough information to make an arrest until Morin returned to Cambodia last week and abused an additional six boys between the ages of nine and 15, she said.

Police were tipped off about Morin’s activities and whereabouts by Action Pour Les Enfants, an NGO that works to combat child sex abuse.