PHNOM PENH: A 68-year-old Canadian man has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two Cambodian sisters aged 10 and 12 in a popular seaside resort town, police said on Wednesday.

Daniel Lavigne was arrested at a bus station in Sihanoukville on Monday, a day after he allegedly abused the girls at a guesthouse, said Be Sivanna, chief of the town's anti-trafficking and juvenile protection unit.

Police accused Lavigne of having sex with underage girls and committing indecent acts against minors, Be Sivanna told AFP by telephone.

"The suspect denied he committed the crimes. He told police he loved the girls as his daughters because he has a love affair with the girls' mother," he said.

"But the girls testified that he sexually abused them," he said, adding that the man would face formal charges in court on Wednesday.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.


- AFP/so