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Thomas Wayne Rapanos (Photo: AP)

Cambodia cuts term for convicted US child molester

2008-12-05
AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - An American man convicted of sexually abusing two young Cambodian girls had his prison term reduced, a court official said Friday.

An Appeals Court panel cut Thomas Wayne Rapanos' prison term to one year for molesting two girls, aged 12 and 16.

Rapanos, 55, of Chicago, Illinois, was originally sentenced to 2 1/2 years by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August.

Appeals Court judge Thou Mony said he ordered the shorter sentence during a closed-door session Thursday. He refused to comment on why he made the decision.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles, and its courts have stepped up action against sex offenders in recent years.

Police arrested Rapanos in March during a raid on his guesthouse room in the capital of Phnom Penh, where they found him in the company of the girls.

Hare Krishna leader to appeal Cambodia child sex conviction

Thomas Wayne Rapanos from Florida, center, is escorted by police out of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008. The 55-year-old American national was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in prison in Cambodia for sexually molesting two girls aged 12 and 16. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Aug 7, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - The leader of a Hari Krishna-affiliated aid organization in Cambodia was to appeal a conviction for molesting a 12-year-old girl, a Phnom Penh court said Thursday.

Police said US national Thomas Rapanos Wayne, head of a Hare Krishna aid group, was found naked in the company of two girls, aged 12 and 16, when he was arrested in a guest house in the capital in March. The age of consent in Cambodia is 15.

Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das, 55, was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in prison for committing indecent acts against minors.

'He was convicted but he said he was innocent and he will appeal,' court clerk Keing Bokhea said by telephone.

Wayne was formerly president of the relatively obscure Bhaktivedanta Eco Village (BEV) Cambodia, an educational aid organization.

He held a copy of the religious text Bhagavad Gita and a portrait of the Hindu god Krishna during his sentencing, the English-language Cambodia Daily said.