[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An American lawyer who has spent the past two-and-a-half years in Cambodian prison for raping four children is now facing five federal counts in the US - after being deported back to the states earlier this month.Currently being kept under house arrest in Tampa, 42-year-old Rugh James Cline is facing 170 years in prison for his alleged crimes, which include alleged payments to rape four minors in the Southeast Asian nation back in 2019.
According to the lawman's indictment, he arrived in Cambodia in May of that year with a photo or video showing two Cambodian children engaged in sex acts - before and after raping two minors under the age of 15 on multiple different occasions.
The trip was the second in a matter of months for the Florida lawyer, with the first made in February - during which time prosecutors believe he either recorded the media which featured one child as young as '12 years old.'
The indictment alleges Cline paid to abuse a total of four minors 'multiple times' on both trips.
Now being used in the case against him, the evidence was enough to slap Cline with five counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, and one count of possessing child sex abuse materials.
Cline was indicted on those charges back in 2021 two years after his arrest, and made his first appearance in US federal court on June 7, in Tampa.
Less than three weeks later, last Monday, a bond hearing was held, which saw the suspected pedophile released on conditions of GPS monitoring, 24-hour home detention and $100,000 signature bond.
As he awaits his impending federal trial sometime this year or next, Cline is also not allowed to have access to the internet or to minors during his house arrest, prosecutors said.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida last Monday outlined some of the disgraced attorney's alleged crimes.
'According to the indictment, in February and May 2019, Cline, a U.S. citizen and Florida-licensed attorney living in Tampa, traveled to Cambodia,' attorneys wrote.
'While in Cambodia, he paid to engage in sexual conduct on multiple occasions with four minors.
'[It] also charges Cline with having traveled from the Middle District of Florida to Cambodia while knowingly possessing materials depicting the sexual abuse of young children.'
According to a non-governmental organization that investigates suspected foreign pedophiles in Cambodia, families of three accusers told police Cline paid them a total of $120 for the 'multiple' illegal acts.
A Cambodian court already ordered Cline, who is technically still a lawyer but has lost the ability to practice due to delinquent fees, to pay 15 million riels - roughly $3,750 - in compensation to each of the girls, all of whom were under 15 at the time.
In addition to the compensation fees, Cline - who pleaded guilty to his crimes in Cambodian court - was ordered to pay an additional one-time fee that the court tapped at $200.
His looming trial in the US comes after years of investigation from agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who, according to prosecutors' Monday press release, was aided by the State Department and the Cambodian National Police.
The case is now set be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilyssa M. Spergel - with Cline, this time around, electing to plead not guilty on all charges.
The decision will see the attorney fight allegations that he was busted with images of 'sexually explicit conduct' involving one unnamed prepubescent child and another under the age of 12 with him to Cambodia in February 2019.
The indictment further states that three times in February, and then again on May 10 and May 17, 2019, Cline 'engaged in illicit sexual conduct' with two minors each day.
Finally being brought forward after four years of deliberations and international cooperation, the case comes as factors such as poverty and poor law enforcement have made Cambodia a de facto breeding ground for foreign pedophiles.
Anti-human trafficking police are currently attempting to crack down on the phenomenon, including the NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), whose executive director, Seila Samleang, celebrated Cline's Cambodian incarceration back when it was ordered in 2019.
'I welcome the verdict, however the crime of purchase of child prostitution should have been charged as the offender took advantage of the victims, coercing them with money,' APLE's executive director, Seila Samleang, said in a statement.
'This would've represented a longer jail sentence,' she added, decrying local laws that allowed Cline to skate free after just a few years.
An investigation published by the agency last year noted that foreign tourists suspected of pedophilia continue to visit Cambodia to exploit weak law enforcement, with as many as 102 cases recorded in 2017 and 89 cases in 2018.
Lieutenant General Chiv Phally, director of Interior Ministry’s Anti-Human Trafficking Police Department, recently promised that Cambodian police are strengthening cooperation with their overseas counterparts to crack down on the alleged crimes.
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