SYRACUSE, NY (WSYR-TV) – A doctor from Central New York has been arrested in Cambodia and is being held in a Phnom Penh prison on a charge of sexual abuse of an underage boy, according to the non-governmental organization Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE).
In a release on its website, APLE says James D’Agostino, 56, was arrested February 16 by the Phnom Penh anti human trafficking and juvenile protection police. He was charged two days later under article 34 “purchase of child prostitution.”
APLE is an organization that provides assistance to vulnerable children in South and South-East Asia by monitoring and investigating child sexual exploitation and associated trafficking activities.
APLE says it had been investigating D’Agostino after it received information that he was abusing an underage boy, whom he took under his “care” at his Phnom Penh rental house.
According to D’Agostino’s blog, he started volunteering in Cambodia and Vietnam in 2009. In it, he writes about working with children to build roads for use by villagers.
APLE says he lived in Cambodia for more than two years, where he acted as a doctor offering advice to staff at the National Pediatric Hospital.
The organization says D’Agostino supported the family of the victim by helping to construct road access in the village in Kandal province.
Upstate Medical University’s website lists D’Agostino as an assistant professor of emergency medicine and certified in pediatric emergency medicine.
Calls to Upstate University for an update on his status and comment were not returned Sunday.
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