A young woman yesterday described to a court how she had spent years of her childhood feeling like a slave to her adoptive mother as she suffered beatings and torture in a home she was rarely allowed to leave, even for school.

Ly Pov, 50, the wife of well-known tycoon Veng Techla, was tried in absentia yesterday, accused of brutally beating and torturing her two adopted daughters over the course of several years, said Top Chunlong, vice prosecutor at Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

“Ly Pov brought the two girls from their poor families to live with her family in Phnom Penh as her adopted daughters,” Chunlong said. “But she always beat them and tortured them, from when they were underage until they were grown.”

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