Cambodia convicts US paediatrician for sex abuse

An American paediatrician has been sentenced by a
Cambodian court to four years in prison for sexually abusing a 15-year-old
boy.

James D’Agostino, 56, was found guilty of purchasing child prostitution.

D’Agostino, a volunteer doctor at a children’s hospital in the capital Phnom
Penh, denied the charges even as he was sentenced.

The former pediatric emergency doctor will be deported after serving his
prison term.

“I don’t agree with it. I am innocent,” he told AFP news agency after the
verdict.

D’Agostino was arrested in February 2011 after the boy told authorities about
the abuse. The teenager had stayed in the home of the doctor, who paid for his
tuition.

Since 2003, Cambodian police and courts have increasingly targeted sex
offenders, in an attempt to shake off the country’s reputation as a haven for
foreign paedophiles.