German arrested in Cambodia for child sex abuse

PHNOM PENH - A German man has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old Cambodian street girl, an anti-trafficking official said on Monday.

Walter Munz, a 62-year-old tourist from Stuttgart, was detained on Sunday after police raided his guesthouse room in the capital Phnom Penh, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the municipal anti-trafficking police.

When officers burst into the room, they found the German man in his underwear with the girl, Keo Thea said.

Munz was arrested on charges of debauchery -- a statute covering a broad range of sex offences that carry possible jail time of between 10 and 20 years.

“He met with the girl some days ago along the riverside and convinced the girl and her parents that he would help the girl study English,” Keo Thea said.

He said Munz had paid the girl’s family 20 US dollars a week for two weeks, notionally to pay for daily expenses, and had taken the 13-year-old to and from school each day.

The girl told police that Munz forced her to have sex with him many times.She said that she reported the abuse to her mother, who did not believe her.

Keo Thea said Munz, who entered Cambodia in 2006, had also committed sexual abuse against children in his home country.

He will be sent to court to face formal charges on Monday or Tuesday.

Last month, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced two German men to 28 and 12 years in prison on charges of human trafficking and abusing several Vietnamese girls as young as 10.

Around two dozen foreigners have been jailed or deported to face trial in their home countries for child sex crimes since 2003.

But officials, including foreign diplomats, have begun urging authorities to target Cambodian sex offenders as well as Westerners.