Danish man charged with child sex abuse in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, A Cambodian court has charged a Danish man with sexually abusing three underage girls in a northwestern border town, officials said Monday.

Banteay Meanchey provincial court on Sunday charged Kenneth Hansen-Jorgen, 61, with sexual abuse of children and he faces at least 10 years in jail if convicted, prosecutor So Vath told AFP.

The mother of one of the children was also charged with prostituting her daughter to the suspect, the prosecutor said.

Hansen-Jorgen allegedly crossed from Thailand into Cambodia and took the girls, all aged under 15, to a guesthouse in the border town of Poipet, said provincial police chief Hun Hean.

"He has confessed to us through translation that he has had sex with the girls, and the victims have also told us about him," the police chief added.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.