Koh Andet district police sent a 27-year-old suspect to Takeo provincial police headquarters on Monday following his arrest after slitting a schoolboy’s throat with a sickle in Pich Sar commune on Sunday.

Police said the 13-year-old was killed after witnessing the suspect attempting to rape his sister-in-law.

Iem Pheap, Koh Andet district deputy police chief, told The Post on Monday that according to the suspect’s confession, the 27-year-old went to visit his older brother and saw only his sister-in-law at home.

He attempted to rape her but noticed that the boy – a neighbour – had witnessed the incident through gaps in the house’s walls.

Afraid the boy would talk about what he had seen, the suspect offered to take him to catch snakes in a nearby rice field, to which the victim agreed. The suspect then killed the boy by slitting his throat with a sickle, leaving his body near a pond before returning home.

The boy’s mother began looking for the victim, with villagers and local police. After the body was discovered, a villager said he had seen the victim with the suspect at the rice field. Police then questioned the suspect, who confessed to the killing, Pheap said.

The woman that the suspect had attempted to rape did not file a complaint with the police, he added.