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A former U.S. Army Marine captain has been found guilty of raping underage girls in Cambodia and sentenced to 210 years in federal prison after a second trial on new charges.
Micheal Joseph Pepe, 68, has been jailed for his crimes since 2007 but was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting and drugging victims, some of whom were 9-12 years old at the time of the abuse.
U.S. Judge Dale S. Fisher yesterday called Pepe’s actions “monstrous” and “terrible.”
Pepe was first arrested in Cambodia in 2006 and sentenced two years later under federal law punishing U.S. citizens traveling abroad for engaging in sex with minors.
Some of the victims had been brought to the US to testify and gave their version through an interpreter.
Pepe, who lives in California, worked part-time as a lecturer at a university in Cambodia but was arrested on charges in 2006.
He has been convicted since 2008, but due to a technical legal ambiguity received the sentence only in 2014.
After Pepe’s sentence it was revealed that translator Ann Luong Spiratos and special immigration agent Gary J. Phillips, were in a relationship with each other, writes Los Angeles Times.
But after the suspension, the judge ruled that the relationship between the two officials had not influenced the fairness of the case.
During the second seven-day trial, eight victims testified again, revealing how Pepe had drugged and raped them in his Phnom Penh apartment when they were minors.
Prosecutor Fisher said “there is no justification for Pepe ever being released from prison.”
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