PREAH Sihanouk provincial court has ordered that a 57-year-old American man be held in pretrial detention on charges of possessing child pornography and purchasing child prostitution from four boys between the ages of 15 and 17, court officials and anti-human trafficking police said Monday.

“I have charged him with child pornography and purchasing child prostitution, but the suspect hasn’t confessed to the two charges, which I will not elaborate on during the process of the court’s investigation,” prosecutor Bou Bunhang said. “The suspect has been serving pretrial detention behind bars.”

Alan Arthur Perry was arrested on Friday at his rented house in Mittapheap district’s Commune 3 on suspicion of sexually abusing the four boys.

Be Sovanna, chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, said the four boys had approached police and said Perry “took them several times on dates ... to have individual, sometimes group sexual intercourse at his rental house in Sihanoukville”.

Police also confiscated Perry’s computer, on which they found many photos of naked teenage boys, Be Sovanna said.

Both charges carry prison sentences of between two and five years under the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.