The Kampong Cham Provincial Court has charged a 15-year-old with the rape and murder of his four-year-old neighbour.

The girl was found dead in Tbong Khmum town on Monday after being raped in a nearby forest, according to police.

The suspect was questioned and charged yesterday, said court prosecutor Huot Vuthy.

Chok Sokao, of the Tbong Khmum provincial bureau of serious crime, said the suspect had confessed. He added a post-mortem had found the girl was badly beaten with a cassette player and leaves pushed into her mouth, leading to death from suffocation.

Sokao added that witnesses had told police the suspect and victim, who were neighbours, had been playing together before he took her elsewhere.

James McCabe, operations director for the police’s Child Protection Unit, said forensics had been performed at the crime scene.