69-year-old James Bernard King has been arrested and charged with illegal confinement following claims he locked up his girlfriend, her younger sister and niece, not letting the trio leave the house unless the younger sister and niece had sex with him.
The news comes after Cambodian police were called to King’s home on December 27th, forcing their way into the property after an alleged 2-hour standoff to free the women and children.
King, from Warracknabeal, Australia, was in Cambodia on a tourist visa when he locked his 38-year-old Cambodian girlfriend, her kids, her niece and her sister in a room in his home.
The Australian man has since admitted he locked the door so the women and children could not leave. While no one was hurt, the ordeal left the women and children extremely shaken and lasted for almost ten hours.
King’s girlfriend, You Kea, spoke to the Phnom Penh Post of the harrowing ordeal.
“My young niece and nephew were very scared,” she explains. “They hugged their mother and me, but no-one was sexually abused.”
A Sihanoukville Provincial Court Prosecutor, Chab Sok Raksmey, told the Phnom Penh Post that illegal confinement, which King has been charged with carries a one to a three-year prison sentence.
King remains in custody as the case pends in court.
