A 61-year-old Big Island man made his initial appearance in federal court in Honolulu Tuesday on allegations that he traveled to Cambodia to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

Richard David Mitchell, of Waimea, was charged in an Aug. 26 criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. In an affidavit filed in support of the complaint, witnesses reported seeing Mitchell engaging in sex acts with a 12-year-old girl in August 2008 at a curbside in Cambodia.

Ed Kubo, U.S. attorney for Hawai'i, said federal law prohibits U.S. citizens from traveling to foreign countries to engage in sex acts with a person younger than 16, or 18 in some cases, if those acts would have been prohibited by federal law in the U.S.

A law that went into effect in April 2003 substantially strengthened federal laws related to predatory crimes involving children outside the U.S., Kubo said.