Cambodian man charged with injecting love interest with his blood

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian man was charged Thursday with injecting a woman with his own blood after she refused to reciprocate his love, a judge said.

Lon Sopheaktra, 22, is being detained at a prison on suspicion he injected a syringe of his blood into the woman's rib cage and waist as she walked home from school, said Duch Sok Sarin, a judge at Battambang provincial court. He faces up to two years in jail if found guilty of assault, the judge said.

If the assailant's blood is found to be infected with the AIDS virus, the maximum penalty would be increased to 15 years, Duch Sok Sarin said.

Police said the suspect fell in love with the woman when the two were classmates in 2004. After the woman refused his advances, he came up with the scheme to inject her with his blood, they said.

"He thought that if he could not marry her, at least his blood can stay inside her body," police officer Tan Sophal said. "That's why he injected her with his blood."

Battambang province, where the attack occurred, is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.