Three high school students were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly gang-raping a restaurant waitress in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district and were sent yesterday to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to be charged, police said.

The men – Riem Mono, 18; Put Keara, 24; and Kim Phnanha, 22 – had been drinking at the Meanchey district restaurant where the 29-year-old victim worked on Tuesday night, said deputy district police chief Meng Heng Tith.

When ready to leave, the suspects convinced the victim to go dancing at a nightclub but instead took her to a nearby forest, where they raped her, Heng Tith added.

In her statement to police, the victim claimed she is HIV positive, a fact authorities have not yet confirmed, and that she had warned her assailants of that fact to no avail.

After the attack, she managed to escape, hiding in the forest before finally venturing out at dawn to reach the police, Heng Tith said.

Based on her testimony, police rounded up and arrested the three suspects, who Heng Tith said confessed to the crime.

“The suspects will be questioned by an investigating judge and charged for their crimes, because we have already prepared a report according to their confessions,” Heng Tith said.