PHNOM PENH – A Cambodian court on Friday handed a British orphanage founder a two-year jail sentence for sexually abusing boys at the home, a prosecutor said. Nicholas Griffin, 53, was arrested in the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap last October and charged with committing indecent acts against six boys under the age of 15. Half the sentence was suspended, meaning Griffin will spend one year behind bars, prosecutor Sok Keo Bondith told AFP. The Briton was ordered to pay a fine of three million riel ($750), he said.
Griffin, who is believed to have left Britain in 2006, founded the Cambodia Orphan Fund, which housed around 70 children at the time of his arrest. The orphanage is now under different management, said Samleang Seila, country director of the anti-paedophile group Action Pour Les Enfants. Cambodia is engaged in a major drive to catch foreign paedophiles as it looks to shed its image as a haven for sex criminals.
