Frenchman jailed for child sex

The Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com

Sep 15, 2009

PHNOM PENH - A CAMBODIAN court on Tuesday jailed a Frenchman for one year after he was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl.

Jacques Collinet, 61, was arrested in April with the 15-year-old and denied having sex with her, saying he only hired the girl for a massage.

But Judge Chhay Kong of Phnom Penh Municipal Court found him guilty and gave him a three-year prison sentence, before ordering him to serve only one year behind bars and to remain on probation for five years.

The judge also ordered Collinet to pay US$500 (S$700) dollars in compensation to the victim.

A Greek national arrested at the same time as Collinet, Christos Kapalios, has not yet gone on trial.

The sentence was condemned as too lenient by a Cambodian rights group which helped with the arrest of the two men.

Mr Samleang Seila, director of Action Pour Les Enfants (Action for the Children), said the Frenchman's jail term was 'light and makes him and other paedophiles not fear to commit such crimes'.

Cambodia has in struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003. -- AFP