Prosecutor Uk Kimsith yesterday called for the Supreme Court to overturn a reduction in sentence handed to convicted British pedophile Michael Glyn Jones last September.
Jones was arrested in mid-2014 and charged with sexually abusing four Cambodian girls aged 6 to 11, procuring child prostitutes and indecent acts against a minor.
Found guilty last April, he was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay each victim about $2,000. Five months later, the Appeal Court reduced his sentence to five years after ruling that while he had touched the girls inappropriately, he had not had sex with them.
Prosecutor Uk Kimsith and victims’ advocate Sorn Sony yesterday requested that the original sentence be reinstated.
“Based on the evidence and testimonies from the girls, he did commit the crime,” Kimsith said. “I would like the court to uphold his conviction.”
Jones’s lawyer, Lim Vouchnea, was dismissive of the request, contending that a doctor’s note found the girls to be virgins and that “procuring prostitutes means buying houses or diamonds . . . but he only bought them food”.
A verdict is due August 10.
