The first person prosecuted under a law protecting children overseas from sex crimes

by US citizens has pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with boys in Cambodia,

the US Attorney's office said. Michael Lewis Clark was arrested last June in Cambodia

and was indicted last September in Seattle. He pleaded guilty last week to two federal

charges of engaging in and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conductin foreign

places.

Cambodian police arrested Clark in Phnom Penh, accusing him of "debauchery involving

illicit sexual conduct" with two boys aged about 10 and 13, US Immigration and

Customs Enforcement said. The complaint said Clark acknowledged he has been a pedophile

since 1996 and that he usually paid the Cambodian boys $2 each for sex. He faces

a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.