A man accused of murdering his seven-year-old niece in Poipet town was arrested and sent to the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court on Saturday, along with his wife, who is charged with conspiring in the murder, police said yesterday.  

Un Sam An, provincial police chief for serious crimes, said that Chan Nat, 46, was so angered on Thursday when he was awakened by his niece that he broke her neck and hacked her with an axe before leaving her body in a bag behind the house.

“He is accused of premeditated homicide,” Sam An said.

After finding the body behind Nat’s house on Thursday, authorities’ suspicions were strengthened when they found blood on Nat’s shirt, leading them to arrest him and his wife, 40-year-old You Mao.

Authorities concluded that drinking had contributed to Nat’s rage, Sam An added.

The girl’s parents had gone to work in Thailand and had left her with her grandmother, who lived near the suspects’ house.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Sarom at [email protected]