Frenchman jailed in Cambodia for sex with teen

2009-09-15
Associated Press

A Cambodian judge says he has sent a Frenchman to jail for a year for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old girl.

Judge Chhay Kong says he sentenced 61-year-old Jacques Collinet to three years in jail Tuesday, but that two of those years are suspended.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge says he also ordered Collinet to pay 2 million riels ($482) compensation to the girl's family.

Police arrested Collinet in April at a Phnom Penh guesthouse after the girl told police he had raped her. Collinet said he only received a massage from her.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for sex tourists because of poverty and corruption in law enforcement. The police and courts have stepped up action against sex offenders in recent years.

2 men face child sex charge

April 21, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia) - A CAMBODIAN court has charged a French man and a Greek national with paying for sex with an underaged girl, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Kry Sok Y said charges were laid against Jacques Collinet, 61, of France and Christos Kapalios, 62, from Greece.

The pair are alleged to have bought sex from a 15-year-old girl and are both now in custody pending trial, a court official said, but declined to give further details about the men.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.