The International Justice webpage has posted the following story concerning the indictment and verdict of a powerful man in Cambodia who is also a child sex predator. Here is an excerpt from the post.
A Phnom Penh court has delivered a guilty verdict against Alexander Trofimov, a Russian investor with powerful sway in the Cambodian community where he had been living. Trofimov was charged with debauchery with a child under 15. Debauchery is the legal term that covers sexual abuse of children under Cambodian law.
Trofimov was sentenced to 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $100,000 USD in damages to the victim, who has been living in an aftercare shelter since the abuse. The victim, 14 years old at the time of the abuse, was brought to Trofimov by a Cambodian pimp, who has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in her abuse. Additional charges of debauchery are pending against Trofimov in cases related to 18 other victims, making him the subject of Cambodia’s largest-ever pedophilia investigation. Trial dates arising from these charges have yet to be announced.
“The significance of this verdict cannot be overestimated,” said Patrick Stayton, Cambodia Field Office Director for International Justice Mission. “The court’s verdict in favor of the victim is not a deterrent to foreign investors, as the suspect’s lawyer announced. Rather, it is a deterrent to foreign men with power and money who believe that they can use their power and money to circumvent the law, and it is a notice that they will be treated the same as any other criminal.” After the verdict was announced against her perpetrator, the victim told her IJM social worker, “One day, I want to be a lawyer.”
Read the entire post here.
