The Appeal Court yesterday sentenced a fortune teller to 14 years in jail for raping an underage girl after performing exorcism rituals on her in Stung Treng town last year.

Judge Sin Visal read out the verdict and sent the accused, Lon Sophal, to jail after the trial on July 18.

The defendant, the victim and her parents were not present in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

“The court decided to uphold the earlier verdict of Stung Treng provincial court,” he said.

According to a police statement, the parents of the 12-year-old girl invited the fortune teller to heal her as she was suffering from poor health.

Sophal told the parents she was suffering from evil curses and a ceremony needed to be conducted to heal the victim.

The family allowed him to take the girl to a forest for three nights to perform a ritual, and he was alleged to have raped her after the “exorcism rites”.

The defendant’s lawyer Lim Eng Ratanak said that his client confessed to the rape and urged the court to hand down a lighter sentence.