Jail for girl's torturers
Source: Agencies |
February 21, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A CAMBODIAN school teacher and her husband have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for torturing and holding captive for more than a year an 11-year-old girl they purchased as a domestic helper, an official said yesterday.
Meas Neary, 41, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and her husband, Va Sarouen, a 62-year-old retired Ministry of Education official, will serve 10 years behind bars, said judge Chan Madina.
Police arrested the couple in October, acting on a tip from neighbors that their young maid was being abused.
Officers found that the girl's body was covered with more than 200 wounds that the couple said they inflicted with coat hangers, brooms and electric wires, police said. They sometimes used pliers to pull her flesh.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted the couple on Friday on charges of torture and human trafficking. Each had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.
The couple had paid US$400 to the girl's 62-year-old guardian in early 2008 for her to help with domestic chores, authorities said. Both of the child's parents were deceased.
Desperately poor Cambodia has been working to crack down on buying and selling of children for domestic work, brothels or street-begging rings inside and outside the country.
The court also sentenced the girl's former guardian, Thoeng Reth, to five years in prison for human trafficking, the judge said.
Meas Neary, 41, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and her husband, Va Sarouen, a 62-year-old retired Ministry of Education official, will serve 10 years behind bars, said judge Chan Madina.
Police arrested the couple in October, acting on a tip from neighbors that their young maid was being abused.
Officers found that the girl's body was covered with more than 200 wounds that the couple said they inflicted with coat hangers, brooms and electric wires, police said. They sometimes used pliers to pull her flesh.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted the couple on Friday on charges of torture and human trafficking. Each had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.
The couple had paid US$400 to the girl's 62-year-old guardian in early 2008 for her to help with domestic chores, authorities said. Both of the child's parents were deceased.
Desperately poor Cambodia has been working to crack down on buying and selling of children for domestic work, brothels or street-begging rings inside and outside the country.
The court also sentenced the girl's former guardian, Thoeng Reth, to five years in prison for human trafficking, the judge said.
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