Child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE Cambodia) applauded the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s ruling on Friday which barred a Briton from returning to Cambodia after he was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for sexual abuse against minors.

At his trial on Friday, Stephen John Loryman was found guilty of “committing sexual acts against minors under 15” according to the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.

The court suspended three-months of his sentence and banned him from entering Cambodia for three years after serving his jail terms. Loryman was also ordered to pay six million riel ($1,500) in compensation to two victims and an additional fine of three million riel.

APLE’s Child Protection Specialist Vando Khoem said at a press release on Friday that while he believed the ban would reduce risk to children, more concerted efforts were needed to prevent them from sexual exploitation.

“A stronger collaboration between relevant stakeholders across the country, region and the globe is necessary to address child sexual abuse and exploitation in travel and tourism,” he said.

Police from the Interior Ministry’s Anti-human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department sent Loryman to court on November 28 last year for purchasing child prostitution.

Lao Lin, chief of the department’s child protection bureau, was quoted as saying on the National Police website on November 28 that Loryman was an English teacher residing in Chbar Ampov district’s Niroth commune.

On November 25, Lin said, Loryman was seen bringing four boys into his rented house. Out of suspicion, the local authorities requested a court warrant to search his house.

Led by deputy prosecutor Kuch Kimlong, police found the boys and seized some electronic devices as evidence.

Lin said Loryman lured children by giving them food, money, mobile phones, stationery and bicycles, among other things.

Vando of APLE Cambodia could not be reached for further comment on Sunday.