A teenage boy was arrested on Saturday in Mondulkiri province for allegedly raping his 9-year-old step-sister multiple times.

Soun Buntheoun, Keo Seima district police chief, said that the girl’s mother filed a complaint to police after the victim told her she was raped twice.

Houn Kimheng, deputy provincial police chief, said the 14-year-old suspect had just moved in to live with his father, step-mother, and step-sister. He was sent to court Sunday.

“The parents are rubber farmers so they left home every day at 4 o’clock in the morning to farm and left [the step-siblings] together,” he said.

“The first time, the mother asked [about the alleged rape] because she was very suspicious, but the daughter hid it,” Kimheng said, adding the suspect allegedly told the victim her mother would beat her if she found out.

Kimheng added that an examination had indicated the young girl was raped.

Meas Pros, administrative chief of the provincial court, said the suspect was in pretrial detention on charges of rape with aggravating circumstances, which carries a sentence of seven to 15 years.