Convicted Belgian paedophile to wed mother of Cambodian victim

Tue, 09 Jun 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - A twice-convicted Belgian paedophile who moved into a victim's home after being released from a Cambodian prison plans to marry the victim's mother, national media reported Tuesday. Anti-trafficking police said Philippe Dessart, who was released from prison April 4, proposed to his victim's mother shortly before he left for Belgium on June 3, The Cambodia Daily reported.

Dessart was released after serving three years of an 18-year prison term for abusing the then-13-year-old boy after a successful appeal of his sentence.

Anti-paedophile groups said in April that they were shocked to discover Dessart had moved in with his victim, now 16, after his release and expressed concern over a younger male sibling also living in the house.

Police said Dessart travelled to Belgium to arrange documents for the marriage and would return to Cambodia in the next few weeks.

New anti-trafficking law reducing paedophile sentences: civil society

Thursday, 29 January 2009
Written by Sebastian Strangio and Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

SLASHED Jail terms

• Philippe Dessart Original 18-year sentence for sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy reduced to three years on appeal after his charges were reclassified under the new law.
• Nikita Belov Charged with abusing three boys aged seven to 13 years, was released in July after having his three-year sentence suspended by Sihanoukville Municipal Court, which ordered him to pay $250 in damages to each victim.
• Alexander Trofimov Had a 13-year sentence slashed to seven on appeal in October.

Last year’s law reclassifying sexual crimes has ushered in climate of leniency, say rights groups

THE lengths of prison sentences given to convicted paedophiles have fallen since the passage of the Kingdom's new anti-human trafficking law, according to civil society groups, who say the new legal classifications of underage sex crimes make it easier for the guilty to avoid lengthy prison terms.

On Monday, Preah Sihanouk provincial court prosecutors filed an appeal seeking a harsher sentence for twice-convicted paedophile Alexander Trofimov, following his sentencing January 20 for further child-sex charges involving 18 underage victims.

Trofimov was handed an 11-year term by the court, which rights groups decried as "unbelievable" and grossly out of proportion to his crimes.

"On behalf of all human rights organisations, we find the verdict difficult to accept," said Pork Sabon, an investigator for the rights group Licadho in Preah Sihanouk province.

According to anti-paedophile groups, the passage of the new Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in February last year, which replaced Cambodia's old debauchery law - applied in almost all child-sex cases - with a series of sex-related offences, has contributed to a growing tendency towards leniency in paedophile cases.

"Under the old law, sexual exploitation was usually prosecuted under charges of debauchery, which carried a sentence from 10 to 15 or 20 years," said Samleang Silea, executive director of anti-paedophile group Action Pour Les Enfants.

"But under the new law ... each case of sexual exploitation can fall under specific articles. If sexual exploitation does not reach intercourse, then it can fall under ‘indecent acts'."

He noted that old charges of debauchery carried a 10-year minimum, while some articles in the new legislation - such as the "indecent acts against a minor" charge - carry penalties of between one and three years.

Growing leniency

The new law previously came under fire from rights groups after Philippe Dessart, a Belgian national arrested in April 2006 on child-sex charges, had an 18-year sentence reduced to three years by the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal on July 26, after having old charges retroactively retried under the new charge of "indecent acts".

Trofimov also had a 13-year paedophilia sentence slashed to seven years by the Court of Appeal in October.

Samleang Silea said the new law, while being more precise and targeted than the old one, had little deterrent effect on would-be sex offenders.

"Technically, this new law is much better than the old law because each article and each crime is clearly defined. But in terms of punishment, it is giving opportunities to sex perpetrators to continue their immoral behaviour," he said.

Bith Kimhong, head of the Ministry of Interior's Department of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection, said that both Trofimov and Dessart had their charges changed from Article 34 ("purchase of child prostitution") to Article 43 ("indecent acts"), but could not comment on the reasons for the courts' reconsideration of the charges.

"I disagreed with the sentence. It was very light," he said of the Trofimov verdict, but added that problems were not with the letter of the new law, which was "a big improvement" over the previous one, but in its application.

"The punishment of perpetrators remains almost the same. The most serious ones have to be sentenced to around 20 years in prison," he said. "Now the [Trofimov] prosecutor is appealing the verdict."

Pisey Ly, a technical assistant at the Women's Agenda for Change, a local rights group, was unable to comment on recent paedophilia cases, but said the focus on sentences could draw attention away from the underlying causes of human trafficking and sex crimes.

"[Seeking to] sentence people for a very long time does not address the issue. Trafficking is related to many issues: poverty, the economic situation, information," she said. "We have to look at the root causes."

Anger over cuts to jail time for paedophiles in Cambodia

Thursday, August 28, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

In Cambodia changes to child sexual abuse laws could mean the reduction in sentences of nearly 40 foreign paedophiles currently serving jail terms.

It has court officials, and child exploitation activists outraged.

Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Samleang Seila, country director, Action Pour Les Enfants Cambodia

Click here to listen to the audio program in English

HILL: In 2006, 48-year-old Belgian man, Philippe Dessart, was arrested and charged after being found in a Phnom Penh guesthouse with a naked 13-year-old-boy. Under Cambodian child sexual abuse laws at the time, he was sentenced to 18 years in jail. But recent changes to the country's abuse laws saw Dessart's sentence reduced to just three years. His lawyer said he was satisfied by the appeal court's decision. Child sexual exploitation activist, Samleang Seila, says this case will be just the start.

SEILA: This is a new law which is protocol at every level of the courts. All the paedophiles were sentenced under the old law but the appeal has to use the new law, so all the sentences must be reduced according to the law.

HILL: That's nearly 40 foreigners convicted of what was once known as debauchery, but now has several categories under the new laws. The changes were designed to stop forms of sexual abuse going unpunished. Samleang Seila, the director of child exploitation NGO Action Pour les Enfants in Phnom Penh, explains.

SEILA: The good thing about this new law is that each offence is clearly defined. In the old law when we talk about debauchery it was very general, so sometimes for slight sexual activity it was not considered debauchery. But now if someone commit sexual exploitation with the child, the other code will apply. So if a person does not have sexual penetration he may be charged with indecent act.

HILL: The judge in the case of Belgian paedophile, Philippe Dessart, ruled that only an indecent act had taken place in the Phnom Penh guesthouse. While sexual intercourse with a minor carries a maximimum penalty of 10 years in jail, an indecent act, which does not involve sexual penetration, carries a sentence of between one and three years. Dessart is not the only one to have his sentence reduced under the new laws. An American was convicted of indecent acts against a 12 year-old-girl, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A convicted Swiss paedophile, sentenced last year to 11 years jail, will now serve just two and a half years. For Samleang Seila, it goes against all that he and his action group campaign for.

SEILA: I think this is a very light sentence and I am concerned that a paedophile would use this to abuse more and more children because a paedophile will not have to have sexual penetration so they just perform sexual activitiy with a child especially masturbation and physical, sexual touching, is enough for a paedophile.

HILL: Cambodia, along with several of its Southeast Asian neighbours, has for years been fighting its image of a sex tourism destination. While education campaigns have helped raise awareness of the problem, little funding and poor law enforcement resources have hampered these efforts. Samleang Seila says the new child sexual abuse laws will only encourage the paedophiles to return.

SEILA: I would make that prediction because the charges and the sentences and the new law would not give serious punishment to the paedophiles so Cambodia would become a set destination for sex with a child again.

15 Years Reduced in Pedophile Appeal [-Sex crimes jail sentences are short in Cambodia]

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 August 2008

The Appeals Court on Wednesday reduced the sentence of a Belgian man convicted of indecent acts with a minor by 15 years Tuesday, based on the enactment of a new anti-trafficking law.

Phillipe Dessart, 46, was arrested in April 2006 and convicted of indecent acts with a 14-year-old boy at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Dassat to 18 years in prison under a previous statute.

Appeals Court Judge Um Sarith upheld the guilty verdict of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but he said Article 43 of the "Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation" called for a sentence of only three years.

Dassat was also fined 6 million riel, or $15,000. The three-year sentence and fine are the maximum allowed under the new law.

Nou Chantha, lawyer for the accused, said Tuesday he was "satisfied" with the reduction of the sentence.

Samleang Seila, country director for the anti-trafficking group Action Pour Les Enfants, said the new law did not signal a strong intention to stop acts of pedophilia.

Imprisonments for sexual acts are "short," he said, calling for further amendments to the law.

The new law, which was enacted in trafficking, calls for five to 10 years in prison for sexual acts with minors and up to 3 years for indecent acts.

Under the old law, indecent acts could lead to a prison sentence of up to 20 years, Samleang Seila said.

The number of pedophile cases against underage boys was lower in 2008 compared to 2006 and 2007, Keo Thia, deputy chief of the anti-trafficking and juvenile protection unit of the Phnom Penh police, said Tuesday.

"The criminals seem to be afraid of our police, who have cracked down on many pedophile cases," he said.

Police have made three arrests of suspected foreign pedophiles since January, he added.

Cambodian court cuts Belgian paedophile's sentence

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A Cambodian court cut a convicted Belgian paedophile's prison sentence from 18 years to three years, citing a change in child abuse laws.

Philippe Dessart, 48, was arrested in 2006 in a Phnom Penh guesthouse with a naked 13-year-old boy in his room. He was charged with debauchery and sentenced the same year to 18 years in jail.

The Court of Appeals reduced his sentence after downgrading the charges against Dessart from debauchery to indecent acts against minors.

"The court found Philippe Dessart guilty of committing indecent acts,'' judge Um Sarith said.

Cambodia used to apply its debauchery law to almost all sex crimes, but has recently updated its statutes to include the new charge of indecent acts.