MAP Forum

A church teacher who encouraged abortion after having sex with a 13-year-old girl several times and even assaulted her was significantly reduced in the appeal hearing. According to the legal community on the 8th, the 12-2 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Chief Judge Bang Woong-hwan, Kim Hyung-bae, Hong Ji-young) broke the original sentence of 10 years in prison for Mr. A, who was handed over to trial on charges of rape, special threats, and assault on the 20th of last month, and sentenced him to 6 years in prison.

In addition, organisations related to children and the disabled were ordered to restrict employment for 10 years and complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment programs. Mr. A is accused of having sex with Miss B (13 years old at the time), a church disciple, in a building in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul in June 2020. Mr. A, who was an adult, dated Miss B, who was a middle school student, for about two years and had sex with him several times. As a result, when Miss B got pregnant, she also encouraged him to have an abortion. The crime of rape of minors is established regardless of consent if the defendant is 19 years old or older, knowing that the other party is under 13 years old or over 13 years old and under 16 years old and has sex with a minor or not. After that, Mr. A notified Miss B of the breakup, but when Miss B came to her residence, she threatened to "kill" her with a weapon or grabbed her head and assaulted her. In April last year, she found out that Miss B had recorded a conversation with herself, so she assaulted him, put Miss B's face in the sink and blew up the water. When Miss B protested, "What would you do if you really died after hitting me like that?", Mr. A threatened with a kitchen knife, saying, "Then you want me to kill you." In the end, Ms. B decided to sue Mr. A, and Mr. A, who found out about it, threatened by saying, "I'm going to die and I'm going to kill you and your family."

In the first trial, he pointed out that "the defendant, who is the homeroom teacher of the church, committed adultery with a 13-year-old victim over a considerable period of time by using a young victim to satisfy his sexual desire," and "He even infliated a second special threat, assault, injury, etc. for the purpose of retaliation against the victim's report," and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The first-instance court also pointed out that the victim had no intention of receiving the deposit paid by Mr. A. In the appeals court, "the victim seems to have suffered considerable shock and pain, and he is hoping for severe punishment while submitting petitions many times," and "The sentence of 10 years in imprisonment is judged to be unfair because it is too heavy beyond the reasonable limits of discretion." The Court of Appeals ruled, "There is a reason for the defendant's claim if we comprehensively consider the items that are the conditions for the sentence that appeared in the court process, such as the defendant's age, sexual behaviour and environment, relationship with the victim, motive of the crime, means and result, and circumstances after the crime."