‘Lucky’ Aussie anything but

DPA reports that Bart ‘Lucky’ Lauwaert has been found dead in his Siem Reap jail cell.

An Australian national has been found dead in his Cambodian jail cell, officials and family said.

Bart “Lucky” Lauwaert, a former teacher, had been serving a 20-year sentence for child sex offences in a case which was spearheaded by local rights group, the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre (CWCC).

In a phone interview from Siem Reap prison, 400 kilometres north of the capital, after his last avenue of appeal was closed last month, Lauwaert again alleged he had been “set up” by people trying to garner donor aid from high profile arrests and threatened suicide.

A prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lauwaert had not been on suicide watch and no formal cause of death had been established, although heart failure had not been ruled out.