A 57 year old German man, Udo Theodore Symon, has been arrested in Phnom Penh for allegedly sexually abusing the nine year old son of his cleaner. Mr Symon is the owner of FX Animation Studios, which describes itself as Phnon Penh’s leading animation and audio dubbing facility and is used widely in Cambodia’s fledgling film and advertising industries.
Mr Symon was arrested following a complaint filed by the child victim’s mother. He was arrested at 10:30 am in the morning of the 16th of June 2015 on ‘Concrete’ Road, Ta Ngov Krom Village, Sangkat Niroth, Khan Chbar Ampov, and he has been charged with sexual contact with a minor.
According to initial police reports, the mother of the boy who was abused was employed as a cleaner for the German and she often took her son along with her when she went to clean the house. When the mother was busy at the market buying food, the German took the opportunity to persuade the boy into his bedroom by tricking him that they would play a game. Then the German made the boy perform oral sex on him. The boy told his mother, who in turn informed the police who immediately came to arrest the man. He has been taken him to the Phnom Penh Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Police Department.
It appears that Mr Symon has been in Cambodia since May 2013. According to his Linkedin profile, he was previously employed in animation studios in Germany and was the CEO of Planet Wave Studio in Saigon from 1994 to 2001. Curiously, his Linkedin profile includes no details of where he was or what he was doing from 2001 to 2013. It also appears that Mr Symon used another name – Udo Sabiniewicz – prior to arriving in Cambodia. It is not clear why, nor is it clear whether Symon or Sabiniewicz is his real name.
Mr Symon is the third expat to be arrested on child sex charges this week. Earlier today a 55 year old French man Bernard Soudeller (above) was arrested in Kandal Province for allegedly raping a 12 year boy, and yesterday a Mexican national, Bernado Pino Paez was arrested in Sihanoukville for allegedly molesting underage girls.