20s Woman Habitually Assaulted Sports Club Junior... Punished After 6 Years

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Ju Cheol-in] A woman in her 20s who habitually assaulted her juniors during middle school sports club activities has been punished six years after the crimes.

Daegu District Court Criminal Division 4 (Judge Kim Nam-gyun) announced on the 16th that it sentenced university student A (20, female), who was charged with habitual special assault for repeatedly hitting juniors during a training camp, to a fine of 10 million won.

A was a third-year Taekwondo athlete at a middle school in Gyeongbuk in March 2015. She slapped junior B (then 12 years old) for failing to properly assist during a Taekwondo match and repeatedly committed assault and verbal abuse against her juniors.

During winter training, she repeatedly called juniors to her dorm room, made them kneel, and hit their hands, soles, buttocks, and forearms with a broomstick, mop handle, wet towel, and other objects.

Additionally, at the winter training site, she struck juniors’ buttocks with plastic rods or wooden swords and hit their faces and heads dozens of times with training mitts.

Judge Kim stated, “Elite athletes should uphold core values such as fair competition, fairness, and camaraderie, but the defendant abused her senior status to repeatedly assault juniors who could not resist. Although a considerable amount of time has passed, this is deserving of condemnation.”

He added, “Considering that the victims still carry emotional scars and desire punishment, that the defendant was just over 14 years old and immature at the time of the crimes, that there is a practice of using assault as a disciplinary method in secondary education environments training elite athletes making it harsh to blame only the defendant, and that she shows remorse, all these factors were comprehensively considered.”

A is known as an elite athlete who won first place at the World Youth Taekwondo Championships and received the ‘Korea Women’s Sports Dream Tree Award’.