A 30-year-old man was sent to Pailin Provincial Court yesterday to await charges for the alleged rape of his 13-year-old step-daughter, according to Chhorm Vanthy, the provincial penal police chief.

Suspect Ye Yet, who was arrested on Friday, is alleged to have raped the girl last Thursday, and attempted to rape her a second time the next day, but stopped after the suspect saw the girl’s mother was coming home. Yet has reportedly confessed to raping the girl.

“While the victim was asleep, he removed her clothes and raped her,” Vanthy said, adding that the suspect then threatened the victim not to tell her mother.

The victim’s mother and the suspect are from Kandal province, but they were living and working in Sala Krao district’s Sombor village at a brick-making facility. When the mother found out about the rape, she went to tell the owner of facility, and the department of women affairs subsequently brought the mother and daughter to file a complaint with police.

“We arrested [the suspect] at home, because when the victim and her mother filed the complaint to the police office, the suspect did not know about it,” he said.

The number of rape cases increased in 2015 compared to the previous year, with a total of 253 cases – up from 226 in 2014 – according to an annual report released by the Ministry of Interior last Tuesday. In 2015, there were four rape-murder cases, according to the report, while there were six in 2014.