Sok Thoeun spotted his son playing video games in an internet cafe, something he was not meant to be doing. As a respectable parent he decided to punish his child, although his methods were rather unorthodox. Sok chained his 13 year-old son to a pole and beat him in public.

“As well as beating his son, he put chains around the boy’s neck and legs and locked him to a power pole on a nearby street in the village, in order to show [his son] to the public,” Colonel Cheth Vanny told The Phnom Penh Post.

Sok then went back to work leaving his son, who was eventually released and sent home.

Villagers were shocked by the scenario, one of them commented, “I think his actions were very inhumane and cruel to his son.”

Thankfully the story does not end here. According to a leading Cambodian law firm, Sok could be jailed for up to 20 years. “Any person who uses violence, detains or tortures a child is acting against the law,” Khan Sereyuthy said.

It seems that The Sun has already picked up on this and it’s only time until The Daily Mail gets involved.