Cambodian court sentences Michigan man on sex charges
By Kocha Olarn, CNN
updated 8:35 AM EST, Wed January 11, 2012
Cambodian sex workers sit on the side walk along a street in Phnom Penh on December 18, 2008.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The case involves the abuse of two brothers aged 12 and 14
- Phillip Bruce Shepard receives 10 years for buying child prositution
- He was arrested in July
- Cambodia is categorized as a destination country for foreign child sex tourists
(CNN) -- A Cambodian court Wednesday sentenced a 68-year-old Michigan man to 10 years in prison for having sex with children.
Phillip Bruce Shepard was arrested in the capital, Phnom Penh, in July.
The anti-pedophile group Action Pour les Enfants said the case involved Shepard buying sex from 17 girls and abusing two brothers aged 12 and 14.
"He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for purchasing child prostitution," said Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Ek Chheng Huot.
Officials said Shepard was a doctor, working at a private clinic in the capital, before his arrest.
Cambodia is categorized by the U.S. government as a destination country for foreign child sex tourists, with increasing reports of Asian men traveling to Cambodia in order to have sex with underage virgin girls, according to a comprehensive 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The U.S. State Department report states a significant proportion of trafficking victims in Cambodia are ethnic Vietnamese women and girls who are forced into prostitution in brothels and karaoke bars.
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