Court Charges Missionary With Child Abuse

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged Daniel Johnson, an American missionary, with committing indecent acts against five boys under the age of 15 at an orphanage he operated in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, police said. Johnson, 35, was sent to the court on Wednesday but prosecutors delayed charging him, questioning him for several days before charges were finally brought on Saturday, Seang Sok, deputy chief prosecutor, said Sunday. “I charged him [on Saturday] under Article 43 of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law with abusing underage victims and then handed him over to the investigating judge,” he said. … An FBI-led investigation into alleged child sex abuse committed in the U.S. tracked Johnson down to the Home of Hope orphanage in Boeng Tampun commune, which is one of a number of projects in Cambodia operated by his evangelical Christian organization, Hope Transitions. Johnson was found residing at the unregistered orphanage, and interviews following his arrest with the 29 children and young teenagers living with him there led to the allegations he had committed abuse.

 Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-missionary-with-child-abuse-49356/