A 53-year-old man was charged yesterday with the murder and torture of a four-year-old girl whose body was found in a sack in Sihan-oukville town last week.

The man, who lived on the same block as victim Ly Lika, was arrested on Saturday night and charged at the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court yesterday.

Provincial deputy prosecutor Huot Vichet confirmed the charges against the suspect yesterday, saying: “According to the new criminal code, the suspect will be imprisoned for the rest of his life if he is found guilty.

“The girl was robbed, raped and killed.”

Huot Vichet refused to reveal the suspect’s name and declined to comment further.

Provincial police chief Tak Vantha said the suspect had been arrested at his home in Sihanoukville’s Commune 4 on Saturday.

The suspect will be imprisoned for the rest of his life if he is found guilty

He said yesterday  the victim’s family and the suspect were neighbours and the suspect had rented a room in the same block.

“The suspect observed the girl many days before he took action,” Tak Vantha alleged.

“He killed her by breaking her neck, put the body in a sack and threw her away at a garbage site.”

Ly Lika went missing from her family’s home last Wednesday.

Her body was found on Thursday morning after vill-gers stumbled across a sack on a path in the commune. Commune police said the dead girl’s family had been “shocked” by the discovery.

The child’s bracelet was missing and health department officials said later that day that she had been sexually assaulted and had her neck broken.

Provincial health department deputy director Sechou  Sethychot said it was thought the girl’s body had been washed after the attack.