Bar owner's murder: Cambodian gets 20 years

A Cambodian youth has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering a British bar owner in a botched burglary attempt, an official said.

Judge Ke Sakhan, of Phnom Penh Municipal Court, convicted 15-year-old Tong Chen, alias Lao Chamrong, of premeditated murder and sentenced him during a trial yesterday, said Nget Sarath, the prosecutor who attended the trial.

“During the trial, Tong Chen admitted to stabbing and killing” the British man, he said.

In February, Tong Chen entered the apartment of 37-year-old David Mitchell, originally from the West Midlands, who owned the Ginger Monkey bar in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, through an unlocked back door intending to commit robbery.

Mitchell’s girlfriend, 29-year-old Jane Nye from New Zealand, was also in the house at the time.

Police said at the time that Nye, a former journalist for an English-language magazine in Cambodia, encountered Tong Chen as she emerged from the bathroom and screamed for help.

The attacker, wielding a sharp knife, stabbed at her and Mitchell, who had rushed out of the bedroom when he heard her cries, police said.

Nget Sarath, the prosecutor, said Tong Chen gave the same accounts of the incident during the trial yesterday.

Mitchell died at the scene from multiple stab wounds. Nye received cuts to her neck and face and was flown to Thailand for medical treatment.

Police arrested the attacker about half an hour after the incident at a nearby park, where he was trying to clean blood from his clothes.