A convicted sex offender found guilty of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with young girls was sentenced Monday to 70 years in federal prison.
Ronald Gerard Boyajian, who lived in Menlo Park and the Palos Verdes peninsula, was given the maximum sentence, according to a news release from the United States Attorney, for the Central District of California.
The 55-year-old was convicted of three child exploitation crimes – traveling to Cambodia with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a 9-year-old girl in Cambodia, and committing these offenses while being required to register as a sex offender under California law, the release stated.
Boyajian was arrested in Cambodia in 2009, while on his 35th trip to Asia over a nine-year period.
According to officials, Boyajian began traveling to Cambodia shortly after completing his parole following convictions of unlawful sex with two 16-year-old girls.
“After being convicted of sexually exploiting two children here in California, this defendant tried to evade justice by traveling to Cambodia to victimize even younger children,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker.
Four victims whom Boyajian sexually assaulted in Cambodia testified against him at trial. Each girl was between 8 and 11 years old when Boyajian purchased them from their mother and grandmothers to sexually abuse them, the release stated.
Prosecutors said Boyajian paid pimps and relatives from impoverished families to gain access to his victims, which he preferred to weigh less than 70 pounds.