Cambodian court jails US man for child sex

A Cambodian court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced a US man to 10 years in prison for soliciting sex with a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl, a judge said.

Updated on: Aug 26, 2009, 13:07:36 IST

AFP | By HT Correspondent, Phnom Penh

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A Cambodian court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced a US man to 10 years in prison for soliciting sex with a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl, a judge said.

Michael James Dodd, 60, from Washington DC, was arrested in October last year while staying with the girl at his rented house in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

"I sentenced the US man to 10 years in jail for soliciting sex from the 14-year-old girl," Judge Chan Madian of Phnom Penh Municipal Court told AFP.

The judge also ordered Dodd to pay 5,000 dollars in compensation to the victim.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.

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