Retired Marine Allegedly Raped Girls In Cambodia

LOS ANGELES A retired Marine Corps captain who worked as a teacher in Phnom Penh was expelled from Cambodia and now faces charges for allegedly forcing young girls to have sex with him while in that country. Michael Joseph Pepe, 53, arrived on a flight Wednesday from Cambodia, escorted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements agents.

ICE'S Los Angeles head of investigations, Robert Schoch, said the details of Pepe's case " are as appalling as any we've ever encountered in a sex tourism investigation."Pepe is charged under a U.S. law that allows prosecution of individuals for engaging in engaging in child sex tourism. If convicted of the charge, he faces up to 30 years in prison, according to ICE. In an affidavit filed in the case, authorities allege Pepe paid a prostitute a finder's fee to bring him young victims.

He allegedly paid the young girls' families a fee and monthly stipend for access to the girls for sexual gratification. In one case, the prostitute admitted receiving $10 for finding him a young girl, whose family received $300, authorities allege. Pepe was arrested by the Cambodian National Police in June after an investigation by U.S. and Cambodia authorities.

The ICE investigation was opened after it received information from two groups alleging Pepe had raped and sexually abused local children using bondage, drugs and beatings, according to court papers. Agents who searched Pepe's home found rope and cloth strips allegedly used to restrain the victims, child pornography, children's clothes, and mood altering drugs, along with newspaper articles about pedophiles, according to ICE.

Pepe's computer contained hundreds of images of nude and semi-clothed children, in some cases bound, performing various sex acts with a man authorities believe is Pepe, according to ICE.

An affidavit filed in support of the charges states ICE agents interviewed four of Pepe's alleged victims, who ranged in age from 9 to 12. The girls stated he had sexually abused them, according to ICE. Schoch said the case is "yet another reminder that pedophiles believe they can evade detection and prosecution by committing sex crimes overseas.

Fortunately for the world's young people, foreign authorities and U.S. law enforcement are allied in their resolve to combat this problem and bring the perpetrators to justice."