NZ rapist facing new charges in Cambodia

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A New Zealander jailed in 2004 for raping five teenage Cambodian girls between the ages of 14 and 19 is now facing new charges of defamation and disinformation filed by a charity group which looks after vulnerable women and children.

Graham Cleghorn, 62, is serving a 20-year sentence for raping the girls, but has claimed that he was set up, and that the charity, the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre (CWCC), paid the five girls US$10,000 ($13,198.94) each to testify against him.

The girls were employed at his Siem Reap home, near the Angkor Wat temple in northern Cambodia.

Cleghorn represented himself at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday and pleaded not guilty to the new charges, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

He claimed to have evidence - a letter from a girl stating that a CWCC official had asked her to testify against him in exchange for $10,000 - but said the letter and other documents he would like to present were being stored at the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh.

He requested time to get the documents and contact the New Zealand embassy to help him find a lawyer.

Judge Din Sivuthy agreed and set his next appearance for November 15.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said Cleghorn was last visited by New Zealand Embassy staff from Bangkok on October 4.

Cleghorn, 62, is being held in Prey Sar prison, just out of Phnom Penh, since his conviction, which was upheld in 2007 by the Cambodian Court of Appeal.

Last month, another New Zealand man, Michael John Lines, 53, who also has Australian citizenship, stood trial in Cambodia for sexually abusing young girls.

Judge Duch Kimsan of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said he would give a verdict in the near future, but did not specify when.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign paedophiles because of poverty and poor law enforcement, but in recent years police and courts have increasingly targeted sex offenders.

- NZPA