> Japanese man jailed for 6 years for taking nude photos of Cambodian kids

PHNOM PENH — A Japanese man was sentenced Thursday to six years in jail by a Cambodian court for taking nude photos of children, a court official said from the coastal town of Sihanoukville.

Kim Eng, presiding judge at the Sihanoukville Provincial Court, told Kyodo News by telephone that the man, 32-year-old Shunichi Nakagawa, was also fined 3.5 million riel (approximately $875), to be used for compensation demanded by the victims’ families.

Nakagawa was arrested and charged in August last year after complaints were filed against him by the parents of seven boys he had photographed in the nude.

At the court’s hearing Thursday, he admitted having taken nude photos of Cambodian boys aged 11 to 17 after having given each of them the equivalent of $1 to $7.5, Kim Eng said.

Nakagawa told the court he had worked in an electronics factory in Japan before arriving in Cambodia as a tourist.