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Saturday, April 20, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Man Jailed on Sex Tourism Charges

(CN) - A 61-year-old man is being held without bond on sex tourism charges. Federal prosecutors say the Hawaiian man had oral sex with a child on the curbside of a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

According to an FBI agent's affidavit in support of the criminal complaint in Honolulu, a witness saw Richard David Mitchell giving and received oral sex with a girl on the streets of Phnom Penh.

A Cambodian man told Cambodian police that he saw Mitchell driving on a motorbike with a girl about 12 years old, the FBI agent said. The witness claims he saw the girl give Mitchell oral sex while he sat on the motorbike, and Mitchell sexually fondled her. The affidavit continues: "Both of them then got off the motorbike and then S.M. laid (sic) on the street curb. Mitchell lifted S.M.'s dress and performed oral sex on her. Both of them then returned to the motorbike and S.M. again performed oral sex on Mitchell."

The witness says he called police, who arrested Mitchell.

Mitchell returned to Hawaii late last week and was arrested by Immigration and Customs agents at the Honolulu airport, the Justice Department said in a press release.

Mitchell is the forth American arrested in the United States in the past two weeks on charges of sexually exploiting children in Cambodia. In late August, three Americans were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after being removed from Cambodia on sex tourism charges.

The Cambodian Minister of Women's Affairs estimates that 30,000 Cambodian children are victims of the sex trade. Sex tourism is a billion-dollar industry that has migrated into Cambodia because of crackdowns in Thailand.

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