A Battambang primary school teacher was arrested and charged with raping his 13-year-old student on Friday, police said yesterday.

Prum Sopheap, 45, a teacher at Doung Primary School in Chhoeuteal commune, allegedly raped the girl in the classroom on January 19, according to Banan district police chief Par Vanny.

Sopheap was accused of raping the girl a second time at his home, on January 30.

“He is her teacher. He raped her; but when we asked the suspect, he said it was mutual consent,” Vanny said. “It was kind of luring her, there was no fighting, or giving over any money . . . it is not a mutual agreement like he claims.”

Vanny added the victim has a form of intellectual disability, according to her mother, who filed the complaint after her daughter told her of the alleged assault.

Provincial court administrator Tieng Sambo said Sopheap had been charged with raping an underage girl and was now in jail.

James McCabe of the Child Protection Unit said people were gaining a new confidence in reporting sex crimes, even those involving authority figures.