Child carer held over abuse claim

Police in Thuan Giao Commune, Binh Duong province, have put a baby-sitter in custody for abusing a three-year-old girl pending further investigation.

They began an immediate investigation after a video clip of Tran Thi Phung abusing the toddler was posted on the internet on Nov. 24. The inquiry led them to the home where the incident occurred.

Phung was filmed pulling the little girl's hair and continuously splashing cold water in her face and up her nose at a day-care centre she operates in Binh Thuan 1 Village. Phung has run the centre illegally for more than 10 years.

She admitted her behaviour after watching the video clip.

After learning of the abuse from police, the girl's parents took her to the hospital for a check-up and she was diagnosed with bronchitis. The infection could have been caused by so much cold water hitting her face.

Chairman Nguyen Van Trung of the Thuan Giao Commune People's Committee said local authorities would inspect the day-care centre and asked the local police to investigate the case.

Trung said inspectors had proposed punishing five illegal nursery centres in the commune but there are still many others operating illegally in the locality due to high demand./.

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ATM tasers girl in Central Highlands province

A 19-year-old girl was knocked unconscious in an electrocution accident after she touched an automated teller machine in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on Thursday.

At 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Siu H’Triem, a Gia Rai ethnic minority girl, came to the ATM booth of the Mekong Housing Bank on Tran Hung Dao Street in Ayun Pa Town to withdraw cash.

But an electric shock made her collapse on the screen of the machine.

Seeing the accident, a nearby xe om (motorbike taxi) driver pulled her out by clasping her shirt and shouted for help.

Staff from the bank’s transaction office immediately shut down the circuit breaker at the ATM booth and took the girl to the Ayun Pa General Hospital, three kilometers away.

Siu H’Triem is now in stable condition, doctors of the Ayun Pa General Hospital said Friday.

Dang Cong Thanh, director of the transaction office, said it was likely that the rain had caused a power leak in the air conditioner in the ATM booth.

Earlier, on April 1, a 10-year-old girl was killed by an electrical leak from a wire providing power to a billboard outside an ATM booth in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.

The ATM booth belonged to the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank).

Fourth-grader Chau Linh Uyen was playing with her friends when she touched the door to the ATM room, lost consciousness and died before she could be taken to the hospital.

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Cambodia jails Japanese man for sex with minor

A Japanese man has been sentenced to prison for buying sex with a 13-year-old Vietnamese girl in Cambodia.

Atsushi Kato, 41, from Aichi Prefecture in Japan, was sentenced by a Cambodian court on Wednesday (October 13) to seven years in prison and to be deported after serving his sentence.

Kato was also ordered to pay the victim 400,000 riel (US$100) in compensation, the Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. Kato was arrested in September last year.

“The verdict is just for the girl in terms of the imprisonment sentence but the compensation does not reflect the damage she has suffered and seems insulting,” Samleang Seila, who heads Action Pour Les Enfant in Cambodia, told Thanh Nien Weekly by email. The human rights organization had provided the Vietnamese victim with a lawyer.

But the verdict sends a message across to traffickers and brothel owners and advances the cause of children’s rights, he said.

Seila said the Japanese paid the girl for sex at a brothel but he said he did not know she was a minor. “Later, the brothel was raided and some of the girl prostitutes were rescued and placed in a government aftercare facility... The authorities were informed of the Japanese national’s contact and arrested the man when he was coming to visit the girl.

“In general, most trafficked victims to [Cambodian] brothels are Vietnamese,” Seila said.

“Some are trafficked or sold from local families to the brothel and others are trafficked from Vietnam with promises of a good job.”

He said job scarcity and “statelessness” in Vietnam forces some Vietnamese people to migrate to Cambodia and also allow their children to go to Cambodia and find a job. “This factor exposes children to human trafficking traps.”

“They are also promised a job in Cambodia by traffickers and thus children with or without their family come to Cambodia and end up being sold or trafficked,” Seila said.

AFP reports that “Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes since 2003 or deporting them to face trial in their home countries.”

Seila said Vietnam and Cambodia should work “closely with each other to strengthen border controls and ensure children are not trafficked; and blind migration is discouraged.” Both sides should take tough action to punish criminals who sell children to brothels, he added.

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Father, son repeatedly rape girl

Police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc on Sunday arrested a father and son for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl over the last six years.

In September, doctors discovered the ninth grader was 25 weeks pregnant when she showed up to receive a tetanus vaccination at school. She was underage and didn't receive proper pregnancy care, so the belly wouldn't grow signficantly.

According to police, Nguyen Van Minh, 59, used to rape the girl at her house when her parents were away. Minh told the girl not to tell anyone, making the girl think that it would be embarassing for her.

Minh repeatedly raped the girl until his daughter-in-law, Le Thi Soan, found out and told her husband, Nguyen Van Trung, 31.

Trung immediately tried to rape the girl at her house but failed to force her into it. Then, one day in February, the girl came to his house to borrow some spices. Trung raped her after threatening to tell everyone that she had intercourse with his father.

Minh and Trung have been charged with “child rape”.

In Vietnam, individuals convicted of raping a minor are likely to face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

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Father, son repeatedly rape girl

Police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc on Sunday arrested a father and son for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl over the last six years.

In September, doctors discovered the ninth grader was 25 weeks pregnant when she showed up to receive a tetanus vaccination at school. She was underage and didn't receive proper pregnancy care, so the belly wouldn't grow signficantly.

According to police, Nguyen Van Minh, 59, used to rape the girl at her house when her parents were away. Minh told the girl not to tell anyone, making the girl think that it would be embarassing for her.

Minh repeatedly raped the girl until his daughter-in-law, Le Thi Soan, found out and told her husband, Nguyen Van Trung, 31.

Trung immediately tried to rape the girl at her house but failed to force her into it. Then, one day in February, the girl came to his house to borrow some spices. Trung raped her after threatening to tell everyone that she had intercourse with his father.

Minh and Trung have been charged with “child rape”.

In Vietnam, individuals convicted of raping a minor are likely to face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

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