German accused of child-sex offences in Cambodia

Apr 9, 2007, 8:23 GMT

Phnom Penh - A German national was in custody and preparing to face court on debauchery charges, the Cambodian term for child sex-related crimes, police said Monday.

Phnom Penh deputy anti-trafficking chief Keo Thea said a man he identified as Walter Munz, a 62-year-old tourist from Stuttgart, had been arrested Sunday in a raid on a guesthouse where he was a found with a 13-year-old girl in his room.

'We are preparing the papers,' Thea said Monday. 'He will either face court this afternoon or tomorrow.'

Police said Munz had refused food since his arrest and appeared frail and somewhat confused.

Police accused Munz of gaining the trust of the mother of the girl and offering to help with the child's tuition but then forcing the girl to commit sexual acts and threatening her not to tell her family.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in jail and is liable for a hefty compensation payout to the victim's family in a country where the age of consent is 15.

Cambodia has made dozens of arrests of foreigners accused of sexual exploitation of children to try to shrug off its reputation as a haven for paedophiles.

Last month, two German men from Berlin and Munich were collectively sentenced to decades in prison for the repeated aggravated rapes of Vietnamese children aged 11 to 14 - acts which they filmed - in a case police described as one of the worst cases of abuse they had ever investigated.