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| Cambodia was once the haunt of child molester Gary Glitter |
An English national has been arrested in Cambodia for allegedly molesting a young boy, less than a month after another British paedophile was sent to jail for 10 years.
The arrest of 36-year-old Richard William Fruin, from Gloucestershire, for allegedly abusing an eight-year-old boy follows the jailing earlier this month of paedophile David Fletcher, 67, from Norwich, who had been convicted of raping a number of children living in a slum.
Fruin, who has a conviction for child pornography in the UK, was charged with molesting the eight-year-old after he was found sleeping with the youngster in a guest house in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
Police said Fruin, who fled to Cambodia after serving a year in prison in Britain for producing child pornography, was found with the boy when police raided the Boeung Meas guesthouse.
He has already made one brief court appearance this week and is expected to be brought before a magistrate again early next month.
‘We are still investigating to determine whether or not he had sex with the boy,’ Lieutenant Colonel Lao Lin, who heads the country’s anti-human trafficking department, told the Cambodia Daily.
Police have established that Fruin has been working as an English teacher in Phnom Penh following his recent arrival in the country.
His known record of paedophilia goes back to 2005 when he was charged at Gloucester Crown Court with 15 counts of producing child pornography.
He was released on bail and fled the country for seven years.
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| Fruin has been charged with molesting the eight-year-old after he was found sleeping with the youngster in this guest house in Phnom Penh |
According to the anti-paedophile organisation Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) he travelled to Africa and South East Asia before returning to the UK last year, where he was re-arrested and sentenced to one year in prison.
On his release, he flew to Cambodia.
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| Paedophile David Fletcher, 67, from Norwich, was sent to the notorious Prey Sar Prison in Cambodia after he was convicted of raping a number of children a month before paedophile Richard William Fruin was arrested |
‘He has a history of abuse and the police have found many more [Cambodian] victims,’ Mr Khoem Vando, deputy director of project management at APLE told The Cambodian Daily.
The mother of the young boy found with Fruin on Sunday night claimed that all three of her sons - including two aged 10 and 11 - told police they had been abused by the paedophile.
‘If police had not taken any action last night, I don’t know what he would have done to my son,’ the woman told the paper.
She said that Fruin had been visiting her shop in Phnom Penh for about a month and had previously taken her two older sons to his guest house.
‘I had no idea that he intended to hurt my children,’ she said.
Miss Pen Chantha, owner of the guesthouse, said Fruin had been staying there for about a month.
‘I was shocked when the police came to arrest him,’ she said. ‘I never saw anything strange while he was staying at my guesthouse.’
If convicted on a single charge of purchasing a child for prostitution, Fruin could be sent to jail for up to five years.
Police said it was possible more charges could follow.
Cambodia has for years been the haunt of paedophiles from Britain and other European countries.
It was where notorious child molester Gary Glitter lived before he fled to Vietnam as authorities started moving in on him. He served prison time in Vietnam before being deported to the UK.
When Fruin, from Stroud, appeared in court in Gloucester last year it was revealed that among provocative photographs found at his home were pictures of a 14-year-old boy called Luke Harrison.
A 21-year-old builder at the time of Fruin's court appearance in 2012, Mr Harrison plunged to his death from a Cornish cliff top during a football tour earlier in the year.
Prosecutor Tim Hills told the court that in 2005, when Fruin was first arrested, he was associating with the young Mr Harrison and had taken him to a farmhouse in Worcester - where indecent pictures of him were taken.
Mr Hills told the court that Fruin's offences came to light after a postman tried to deliver a parcel to his home, a package that was in fact addressed to Luke Harrison.
The postman refused to hand the parcel over to Fruin, who snatched it.
The postman reported Fruin for theft, resulting in police searching his home and finding 'evidence of drug use'.
Police had expected to find further incriminating drug evidence on Fruin's computers, but instead discovered pornographic films and pictures, most of them from the internet - but there were others of Mr Harrison in provocative poses.
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