A woman, 44, appeared in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday, charged with selling a 13-year-old orphan into prostitution.

Kim Dany, the presiding judge, said Em Sophea was accused of kidnapping the girl – who was born HIV-positive – from New Hope for Cambodian Children (NHCC), an orphanage in Kandal’s Takhmao town, and selling her to have sex with her gambling partner at a brothel in the capital’s Chamkarmon district last June.

“She brought the girl to visit her family, and finally sold her to have sex with a man,” Dany said.

According to Sok Phalla, executive director of NHCC, the girl had disappeared from the orphanage before returning on her own three days later.

Continue reading: Orphan girl sold for sex, court hears