The man detained on Sunday for raping a 10-year old girl and killing her and her two-year-old brother in Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday has confessed to the crimes, saying he was “intoxicated and went berserk”, police said on Monday.

The confession followed the suspect’s arrest in Prey Romdeng commune’s Kroeul village in Prey Veng province’s Mesang district by authorities from the Ministry of Interior’s criminal police department in collaboration with the Prey Veng provincial serious crime office.

Preah Sihanouk provincial police chief Chuon Narin told The Post his team had decided not to take the 26-year-old suspect back to the scene, in Koki village in Prey Nop district’s Bit Traing commune, to re-enact the circumstances.

He said hundreds of people were waiting at the victims’ house and there was a chance he could be killed.

Narin said the suspect’s wife, who was also detained, had been questioned twice and appeared not to be involved.

Police said that on Monday morning, 500 or 600 people gathered at the crime scene.

Bit Traing commune chief Keo Savuth said on Monday that the victims’ family had only arrived in the area five days before the incident to work on a farm.

The father would bring his children to the farm every day, Savuth said, but because of heavy rain on the day of the attacks, he left them at home.

Mesang district police chief Nov Hach said the suspect had been accused of unsuccessfully attempting to rape a girl in Prey Romdeng commune in 2005.

Fearing capture, he had fled the district, Hach said. But on Thursday, the suspect returned to Kroeul village.

On Sunday, Mesang district police went to the suspect’s house, but it was locked in an attempt to make it look like there was no one staying there.

“When we arrived at the house where he was hiding, he got scared and ran up onto the roof. That’s when the authorities realised he really was the suspect,” Hach said.