Siem Reap provincial police sent a man to court on Thursday for allegedly raping his five-year-old step-daughter.
Chea Heng, the chief of the Siem Reap provincial Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Bureau, said on Thursday that the 34-year-old man was arrested by local police on Wednesday and, following questioning, was sent to the provincial court.
“The suspect confessed to the police that he had committed the crime. He raped his step-daughter and will now face the law,” Heng said.
The district’s deputy police chief in charge of crime said a women’s association brought the girl to hospital on Wednesday to be examined.
The girl’s mother, a widow with three children, the victim being the youngest, remarried and had another child with the suspect. All six lived together, he said.
He said the suspect raped his step-daughter at a lake around 5km from their home in September.
On Wednesday, he attempted to again rape the girl, the deputy police chief said, but her grandmother discovered him and went to the police.
Police arrested the suspect the same day, and he confessed to twice raping the girl.
The deputy police chief said the girl was too young to tell police exactly what had happened to her, but some of her answers were consistent with the suspect’s confession.
“The suspect confessed to the crime, but his wife refused to believe that he had done such a terrible thing. However, the law will judge what happened,” he said.