French men charged with paedophile offences

AFP/Phnom Penh A Cambodian court charged two French men yesterday with soliciting a child prostitute and producing child pornography, a prosecutor said. The charges were laid against Michel Jean Raymond Charlot, 62, and 60-year-old Claude Jean-Pierre Demeret, Phnom Penh municipal court prosecutor Kry Sok Y said. Charlot was arrested after he allegedly solicited a 16-year-old girl in Phnom Penh and took her back to his guesthouse room. Claude Jean-Pierre Demeret was arrested later after the girl told police about him, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the municipality’s anti-human trafficking police. Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles.