Wednesday August 30, 2006
Phnom Penh- A German national charged with paedophilia offences in Cambodia staged an apparent suicide attempt as police prepared to transfer him to a jail from a hospital where he had been treated after leaping from a building to evade arrest, officials said Wednesday. The attempt took place after Karl Heinz Henning, 60, asked to take a shower before being transferred to Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison to await trial, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the capital's anti-trafficking police.
"He went quiet for 20 minutes, so we forced open the door, and he was on the floor bleeding," Keo Thea said, adding that Henning had apparently slashed his arms and neck with a sharp piece of plastic but had since been declared fit and transferred to the jail Wednesday morning.
"His wounds were not too deep and not serious once treated," Thea said.
Henning of Bad Essen was arrested in a police raid on his Phnom Pehn apartment on August 20 on a tip-off from suspicious neighbours. Police said they found a hoard of child pornography, film equipment and sex and bondage paraphernalia mixed with children's toys during the raid and rescued one girl about 14.
Cambodian police continue to sift through evidence, saying they fear they might have stumbled upon the largest organized child-sex network ever uncovered in the country.
"We continue to search for others, including foreigners, who may have been involved," Thea said.
Police said the haul so far includes nearly 2,000 computer images and scores of videos of girls aged 10 to 14 being violently and repeatedly raped, but they added that they were trying to access still more computer hard drives and feared many more images would surface.
A second German, teacher Thomas Sigwart Eugen Baron von Engelhardt, 42, of Munich, was arrested a day after Henning after police claimed to have found images of him also having sex with children in the collection.
The pair has been charged with debauchery, the Cambodian name for paedophilia-related offences, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.
Three Vietnamese nationals, including the mother of two of five girls rescued during the investigations, have also been charged with human trafficking after police maintained they supplied the men with children as young as 10.
Henning has been under police guard at a city hospital since his arrest. Police accused him Wednesday of staging the abortive suicide attempt in an attempt to avoid prison and extend his stay in the relative comfort of a hospital.
Henning's lawyer, Theng Meng Y, said Wednesday that he had been in the hospital room at the time of the incident and believed Henning had not inflicted any serious wounds.
Meng Y added that Henning denied the charges against him and would plead not guilty.
Meanwhile German embassy deputy head of mission, Theo Kidess, confirmed a German police attache had arrived in Cambodia Wednesday from the embassy in Bangkok and would examine the case as part of his work here.
Child-sex offences committed overseas are also punishable under German law. Cambodian police said they have not ruled out a paedophile network with possible links inside Germany.
"He went quiet for 20 minutes, so we forced open the door, and he was on the floor bleeding," Keo Thea said, adding that Henning had apparently slashed his arms and neck with a sharp piece of plastic but had since been declared fit and transferred to the jail Wednesday morning.
"His wounds were not too deep and not serious once treated," Thea said.
Henning of Bad Essen was arrested in a police raid on his Phnom Pehn apartment on August 20 on a tip-off from suspicious neighbours. Police said they found a hoard of child pornography, film equipment and sex and bondage paraphernalia mixed with children's toys during the raid and rescued one girl about 14.
Cambodian police continue to sift through evidence, saying they fear they might have stumbled upon the largest organized child-sex network ever uncovered in the country.
"We continue to search for others, including foreigners, who may have been involved," Thea said.
Police said the haul so far includes nearly 2,000 computer images and scores of videos of girls aged 10 to 14 being violently and repeatedly raped, but they added that they were trying to access still more computer hard drives and feared many more images would surface.
A second German, teacher Thomas Sigwart Eugen Baron von Engelhardt, 42, of Munich, was arrested a day after Henning after police claimed to have found images of him also having sex with children in the collection.
The pair has been charged with debauchery, the Cambodian name for paedophilia-related offences, which carries a 20-year prison sentence.
Three Vietnamese nationals, including the mother of two of five girls rescued during the investigations, have also been charged with human trafficking after police maintained they supplied the men with children as young as 10.
Henning has been under police guard at a city hospital since his arrest. Police accused him Wednesday of staging the abortive suicide attempt in an attempt to avoid prison and extend his stay in the relative comfort of a hospital.
Henning's lawyer, Theng Meng Y, said Wednesday that he had been in the hospital room at the time of the incident and believed Henning had not inflicted any serious wounds.
Meng Y added that Henning denied the charges against him and would plead not guilty.
Meanwhile German embassy deputy head of mission, Theo Kidess, confirmed a German police attache had arrived in Cambodia Wednesday from the embassy in Bangkok and would examine the case as part of his work here.
Child-sex offences committed overseas are also punishable under German law. Cambodian police said they have not ruled out a paedophile network with possible links inside Germany.
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