A grisly case came to a grisly end when a father who was accused of reapeatedly raping his now-17-year-old daughter in Kratie province committed suicide yesterday by hanging himself while in police custody, a district police official said.

Foreign Lieutenant Colonel Huoth Limheang, chief of the Serious Penal Police Office in Kratie, said that Sar Tey, 37, was rushed to the hospital after the suicide attempt was interrupted by guards, but died there soon after.

Limheang cited blame from relatives and remorse as Tey’s probable motives.

According to Limheang, Tey was arrested on Wednesday after his daughter fled his home and revealed the long-running abuse to her mother, who had divorced Tey in 2010.

“He had been raping his own daughter since she was 7 years old,” Limheang said.

Tey had four children including three sons and just one daughter, who was the eldest.

“His raping activity came to light after the daughter had been pregnant, and she was forced by her father to abort the child.”

The abortion itself, said Limheang, was especially inhumane.

“To abort her 3-month-old foetus, he used his arm to put into his daughter’s vagina in order to make the foetus abort,” he said.

Police described the rape as “daily” and said that the mother of the 17-year-old had been living in another village.

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]