Story By: Simon Glover, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

This US lawyer has been arrested in Cambodia for paying underage girls as young as 12 years old to perform sex acts on him.

Rugh James Cline, 38, from Tampa, Florida, was picked up by police in the city of Siem Reap, capital of north-western Cambodia’s Siem Reap Province, near the world-famous Angkor Wat temple ruins.

His arrest followed a complaint by a local woman, Rath Vanvan, 34, the mother of two sisters, aged 12 and 14, to police charged with protecting children from sex tourists and pimps.

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Provincial deputy police chief Brigadier General Doung Thavary said cops had subsequently identified a total of four alleged victims, all of them under the age of 15.

Cline allegedly paid each of the girls between 10 USD (8 GBP) and 50 USD (40 GBP) each to perform a variety of sex acts.

Brigadier General Thavary said he met the girls in the city’s lively Pub Street area and took them back to his rented accommodation to molest them.

She added that Cline denied the allegations but admitted he knew the girls and had given them some money.

After questioning by police and court officers, Cline was charged with sexually abusing four underage girls.

If convicted, he could be jailed for up to three years and a face a fine of two to 10 million KHR (390 to 1,954 GBP).

Brigadier General Thavary added that Mr Cline been in Cambodia since 7th May and it was the second time he had visited the country this year.

Cambodia has a widely recognised sex tourism problem with reports of young girls being held as sex slaves and forced to work in brothels.

But Brigadier General Thavary added that : “We believe this is not a common case among tourists who visit Angkor Wat.”