Canberra to send rapist to Cambodia

Canberra to send rapist to Cambodia

AUSTRALIA: Australia said on Friday it would do everything possible to send a convicted child rapist back to Cambodia after admitting embassy officials wrongly gave the man a new passport allowing him to flee Cambodia before his trial.

Australia is trying to right the wrong it committed when its embassy in Phnom Penh replaced the passport of Clint Rex Betterridge while he was on bail awaiting trial for raping and sexually harassing six Cambodian girls aged between 12 and 14.

Betterridge returned to Australia with the new passport last month, days before a Cambodian court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in jail and levied an $8,000 fine for the offenses.

The bungle by the Australian embassy has soured relations between Canberra and Cambodia's government, which has been trying to crack down on its infamous child sex industry. --Reuters