The Cambodia Daily, May 24, 2010

 

Police in Phnom Penh on Friday arrested a 36-year-old British computer engineer for allegedly having sex with under-aged girls in 2006, police said yesterday.

 

Matthew John Harland was arrested at his rental house which he shared with his girlfriend and her 13-year-old sister in Meanchey district’s Boeng Tompun commune, said municipal anti-human trafficking police chief Keo Thea.

“Three girls under 15 years old confessed that [Mr. Harland] had sex with them,” Mr. Tea said, referring to two cases in 2006 and alleged indecent acts by Mr. Harland on his girlfriend’s sister. Mr. Thea said that police confiscated two laptops from the suspect’s residence, after receiving a report from British police that Mr. Harland had fled while on bail in 2005 after facing child pornography charges.

Seila Samleang, country director for anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, which assisted police in the investigation, said that Mr. Harland allegedly had sex with a 13-year-old and indecently touched a 12-year-old in 2006. Mr. Harland allegedly paid $20 to the girls, who sold postcards along the riverfront, Mr. Samleang said.

“This month we saw him live with another 13-year-old, the sister of his wife. We informed the police she was at risk,” he said, referring to the sister of Mr. Harland’s girlfriend. APLE found the two former victims who disclosed abuse and filed complaints, he said.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Harland was working at an Internet Company in Phnom Penh. Mr. Harland is expected to be charged today at the municipal court, Mr. Thea said.

In a separate case, Canadian art dealer Kenneth Robert Klassen on Friday pleaded guilty to sex tourism charges at a court in the province of British Columbia, according to a news report.

Mr. Klassen, father of three, admitted to eight counts of inviting sexual touching from children under 14 in Cambodia during August 2001, the Vancouver newspaper The Province reported.