Boy, 16, convicted of sleeping with a 14 year old

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court has sentenced a 16-year-old boy to four years in prison after finding him guilty of having sex with a 14-year-old girl twice at a guest house in Daun Penh district’s Psar Thmey commune in April.

Huot Ly Hour, 16, was arrested on April 27 from a local guest house after the girl’s parents lodged a complaint with police.

The complaint accused the boy of sleeping with their underage daughter the night before.

Presiding judge Din Sivuthy also ordered Huot Ly Hour to pay 16 million riels (US$3,809) in compensation to the victim.

Defence lawyer Ong Sileth said the decision was unjust, and that the court lacked the evidence to convict her client.

“There was no family document that specified the girl’s exact age,” she said. “She said at the police station that she was 16, but then told an investigating judge that she was 14.”

She said that her client would decide whether to lodge an appeal against the verdict.

During a September 10 hearing, the 16-year-old confessed to having sex with the girl, though he said that the pair were “sweethearts” who had been seeing each other for more than a month before his arrest.

“I had sex with her twice in separate guesthouses with mutual consent,” he said.

He told the court that the night before he was arrested, he drove the girl to the riverside to hang out and eat, before taking her to a guesthouse where he asked her to stay overnight.

“The girl was afraid to go home because she feared that her parents would be angry; that’s why she agreed to spend the night with me,” he said.