A FORMER deputy head teacher of a Keighley primary school has been jailed in Cambodia for child sexual abuse.

Stephen Loryman, 57, appeared before Phnom Penh Municipal Court nine months after allegations he had sexually abused five children aged between nine and 13.

He was convicted of an indecent act against a minor under 15 years under Cambodia’s Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.

Loryman was sentenced to 15 months in jail with a three months’ suspension, and ordered to pay a compensation of approximately $1,500 to two child victims and a fine of $750.

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He was also banned from Cambodia for three years following his jail term.

Loryman used to be a teacher, then deputy head, at Eastwood Community School, in Lawkholme, Keighley.

He was arrested on November 25 last year in Cambodia, where he had been doing voluntary work.

APLE Cambodia, an organisation that fights child sexual abuse and exploitation, this week said it had worked with Cambodian National Police after receiving a tip-off from two confidential sources about Loryman’s alleged abuse.

The organisation said six child victims with ages ranging between nine and 13 years old were rescued, and five of them confirmed that they had been sexually abused by Loryman.

Writing on its website, the organisation stated: “The offender had rented an apartment in Phnom Penh and brought several street boys into his room in the apartment, where the alleged sexual abuses took place.

“He taught them English, fed them, supported their school fees and allowed the boys to play in his apartment, gaining their trust before abusing them.

“Mr Loryman was a teacher at a private school in Phnom Penh, and had been fired from a volunteering position at one organisation due to his suspicious behaviour with children.

Vando Khoem, APLE’s Child Protection Specialist, said: “I applaud the order of ‘ban on stay’ by the court. This allows safer space for children in the community.

“However, stronger collaboration between relevant stakeholders across the country, region and globe is necessarily needed to address child sexual abuse and exploitation in travel and tourism.”

According to a biographical profile on the Amazon website last year, Mr Loryman had previously worked in Sierra Leone, in West Africa, with a Christian charity.

The charity took volunteers to the country for short trips to help develop the local infrastructure.

In 2012 Mr Loryman self-published a fiction book called “The Kissy Boys”, based on the real-life experiences of young boys living in Sierra Leone.