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Graham Cleghorn….victim
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Six Cambodian girls whose
testimony put an Australian in jail for 20 years on rape and sexual abuse
charges have changed their story and asked an appeal court to free him. They have accused the Cambodian
Women's Crisis Centre of persuading them to testify that Bart Lauwaert hired
them as maids, then raped and abused them sexually. They say the crisis centre
convinced them to lie to get money out of the 39-year-old Australian. One of the girls aged between 12
and 14 when the alleged rapes occurred, Savy, told the appeal hearing:
"We were told to blame Bart so that we will have some money from
him". The hearing was attended by
Australian diplomats four years after Lauwert was jailed. Judge Thou Mony says the girls
could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty of false testimony. "If you have falsified your
statement and made him get 20 years in jail, that is a very serious
thing," he said. Charge denied The crisis centre denies the
charge. Its director, Ung Chanthol, says
the girls have changed their story because they were upset they had not
received the $A26,700 compensation the court ordered Lauwert to pay. "The court told the children
it had passed the compensation money to us for the children but that is not
true, so the children are now angry with us," she said. "It is a funny thing to hear
that. "We have helped them all the
way to win the case but now they've changed their minds. "We never forced them to put
the blame on the Australians." After leaving the court, Lauwaert
said: "I hope we get justice for me and for all of the young
women". "I have never broken the law
in Betteridge Lauwert was arrested in Siem Reap,
the main Cambodian tourist town near Angkor Wat, along with English teacher
Clint Rex Betteridge. Betteridge received a new passport
and fled to He was sentenced to 10 years in
jail in absentia. In January, the Australian
newspaper reported he was still in an Australian jail pending a decision on
whether he should be extradited back to The three-judge bench says it will
announce its verdict on June 9. Judge Thou Mouny was recently
appointed to the bench for trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders. -Reuters |