A fresh police recruit was sentenced to life in prison yesterday at Phnom Penh Municipal Court after being convicted of “murder accompanied by torture” in the October 2014 killing of his 20-year-old girlfriend. Hong Kalydin, 28, was arrested and charged a week after the body of his girlfriend, Song David, was found floating in the Tonle Sap.

In addition to the life sentence, Kalydin was ordered to pay 20 million riel ($4,840) to the victim’s family. Speaking after the verdict, Davin’s mother, Si Tuy, expressed satisfaction with the prison term but not the compensation. But Kalydin’s attorney, Puth Dimong, said he was very disappointed with the “unacceptably unjust” verdict and will appeal.

“During the hearing there was no evidence,” he said. At the June trial, the defence produced a man who said he had witnessed the victim in the company of another man the night before her body was discovered.