Canadian charged with sexually abusing 14-year-old girl was allegedly ‘caught red-handed’ in Cambodia

A Canadian retiree has been arrested in Cambodia after police burst into a hotel room and allegedly found a naked child cowering in the bathroom and a man in bed with pornography, sex toys, a camera and erectile enhancement pills.

The 69-year-old man, whose Canadian passport was issued in Vancouver, has been charged with sexually abusing an underaged girl, according to a prominent child’s advocacy group.

Police arrested Vijai Indra Deo Kumar on Monday in Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat, the world heritage site of the largest religious monument in the world.

“We followed up on a report from immigration police and when we went to the guesthouse we caught the suspect in his room red-handed,” Lieutenart Colonel Duong Thavary, chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking and children protection office, told the Cambodia Daily.

“We found many obscene discs and medicine to make someone strong during sex,” his deputy, Chea Heng, told the Phnom Penh Post.

    This wealthy, elderly retiree left Canada to come to Cambodia to buy child prostitutes. He is now in jail

“This wealthy, elderly retiree left Canada to come to Cambodia to buy child prostitutes. He is now in jail,” said prosecutor Ti Sovanthal.

Mr. Komar traveled from Canada to Laos in March. From there he went to Vietnam before arriving in Cambodia on April 16 and settling into Siem Reap’s Hilton Angkor Guesthouse, according to Action Pour Les Enfants, a child’s rights non-governmental organization. (The guesthouse is not part of the Hilton hotel chain.)

Mr. Komar was scheduled to return to Canada on May 16. He is now in detention pending trial, authorities said.

“This week’s police operations have sent out a strong signal that the times of impunity are over and Cambodia is no longer a safe haven for pedophiles,” Seila Samleang, country director for the child’s rights organization, told the National Post.
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The organization is working with police to collect further evidence in the case and is providing social and legal assistance to the 14-year-old girl.

As part of a crackdown against sex tourism in Cambodia, the government has called on hotel employees to report suspicious activity to authorities, acting as their eyes and ears to protect vulnerable children.

Police said the arrest came after it received a tip about Mr. Kumar, but did not specify the source of the information. The tip led police to get a warrant to enter Mr. Kumar’s room.

Local newspapers reported that on a previous visit to the area Mr. Kumar drew attention but was not charged, when police believed he had suspicious contact with a young bookseller.

“It is disgusting that so many Canadians are travelling abroad to sexually exploit vulnerable and defenceless children,” said Rosalind Prober, president of Beyond Borders, a Winnipeg-based organization fighting child sexual exploitation.

Five Canadians have been convicted in Canada for sex tourism since the law was changed to allow prosecution for crimes committed by Canadians abroad in 1997, but Ms. Prober said that represents a tiny fraction of the perpetrators.

Activists in Cambodia say the arrests signal enhanced attention and enforcement rather than an increase in sex tourism. Signs are posted around the country encouraging people to phone a tips line to report suspected sex tourists and predatory pedophiles.