[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Ju-cheol In] A woman in her 20s who had to sit next to a man who masturbated for 3 hours and 30 minutes on an express bus is now suffering from depression and anxiety.
According to a recent report by Chosun Ilbo, Ms. A boarded an express bus bound for Jeonju on January 23.
Less than five minutes after Ms. A took her seat, a man in his 30s, Mr. B, sitting next to her suddenly unzipped his pants and exposed his genital area.
Ms. A was so shocked that she closed her eyes and considered alerting the bus driver or passengers for help, but she was too afraid that Mr. B might harm her and could not muster the courage.
Ms. A anxiously waited for the express bus to arrive at a rest stop. She planned to leave her seat under the pretense of going to the restroom and naturally switch seats.
When the bus arrived at the rest stop, Ms. A hurriedly got off. Although she thought about informing people nearby, she was afraid of Mr. B’s gaze watching her.
She got back on the bus and looked for another seat, but it was already full. Reluctantly, she returned to the seat next to Mr. B. After the bus departed from the rest stop, Mr. B continued to expose his genital area.
Gathering courage, Ms. A typed a message on her phone saying, “The man sitting next to me is engaging in obscene acts. I’m too scared to film it myself. Please film it for me,” and sent it to a passenger in the back seat.
The passenger in the back seat recorded Mr. B’s obscene behavior and sent the video to Ms. A’s phone. Ms. A reported the incident to the police via text message without Mr. B noticing. Mr. B stopped masturbating only after being arrested by the police who responded to Ms. A’s report.
Since that day, Ms. A said, “My heart races and I feel suffocated whenever a man sits next to me,” and added, “I started taking a long leave of absence, commuting by taxi or using my boyfriend’s car.”
She continued, “Because I was in a sensitive state, my health deteriorated, and I took sick leave for the first time since joining the company,” and said, “I still have trouble sleeping because of the memories from that day.”
Ms. A appealed, “Even just encountering a man with a similar appearance to the perpetrator on the street makes my hands tremble and my stomach churn, making it impossible to live a normal life.”
Ms. A expected Mr. B to receive severe punishment, but the police applied only the charge of ‘public obscenity’ and sent him to the prosecution. The prosecution also recently filed a summary indictment against Mr. B on the charge of public obscenity only.
Such crimes are classified as public obscenity acts rather than sexual harassment. Recently, men who engaged in obscene acts in subway stations were consecutively arrested by the police. Also, a man who exposed his genitals on a train was legally punished.
The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul arrested a man in his 50s, Mr. C, for intrusion into a multi-use facility for sexual purposes under the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes.
Mr. C is accused of masturbating in the women’s restroom at Sinnonhyeon Station on Subway Line 9 around 2:40 p.m. on the 6th. Police who responded to a report saying, “It sounds like a man is moaning in the stall next to the restroom,” arrested Mr. C in flagrante delicto.
A man in his 20s who urinated toward a woman ahead of him on the escalator at Juan Station in Incheon was also caught. He later took his own life while under non-custodial investigation.
In April, a man in his 40s, Mr. D, accused of exposing his genitals on a subway train, was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial.
Mr. D is accused of unzipping his pants and exposing his genitals on a Subway Line 3 train on November 2 last year. It was confirmed that he committed this act in front of two female passengers. Mr. D is known to have been fined three times for public obscenity since 2011.
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