Court Completes Warrant Hearing for Stalking Station Worker Jeon Mo in 'Sindang Station Murder' Case... Only Responds with "I'm Sorry"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] On the 16th, a detention hearing was held for the suspect in the stalking murder case that occurred on the 14th at Sindang Station on Seoul Subway Line 2.

Kim Se-yong, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, conducted a pre-detention suspect interrogation for Jeon Mo (31), an employee of Seoul Metro, who was charged with murdering a female colleague in her 20s at the women's restroom in Sindang Station. The hearing began at 3 p.m.

The detention hearing, which started at 3 p.m., ended after about 27 minutes.

Jeon arrived at the Seoul Central District Court at 2:06 p.m. that day, dressed in a sky-blue top, black shorts, and slippers, with a bandage wrapped around his left hand.

As he entered the courtroom for the detention hearing, he did not respond at all to the barrage of questions from reporters such as "Do you have anything to say to the victim and her family?", "Why did you commit the crime?", and "Did you plan the crime?"

However, after the hearing, when leaving the courtroom, Jeon responded to reporters' question "Do you have anything to say to the victim?" with "I'm sorry."

When asked, "What was your motive? Do you have anything to say besides apologizing to the victim?" he briefly replied, "Yes, I'm really sorry."

But he did not answer other questions such as "Why were you wearing a shower cap at the time of the crime?", "How did you know the victim's workplace?", "When did you start planning?", and "Is there a reason you committed the crime the day before the first trial verdict?"

Jeon was arrested on the 14th around 9 p.m. on suspicion of stalking and murdering his colleague, female station attendant A (28), whom he had been stalking, by following her and stabbing her with a weapon at Sindang Station. The victim was taken to the hospital but eventually died.

Earlier, the Seoul Western Police Station applied charges against Jeon for violating the Information and Communications Network Act for over 350 messages sent from November 2019 to October last year, before the Stalking Punishment Act was enforced, requesting to "meet," and for violating the Stalking Punishment Act for about 20 messages sent from November last year to February this year, which included coercion to settle. In March of this year, Jeon was transferred to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office. The police are currently reviewing whether to disclose Jeon's identity.

Jeon's detention decision is expected to be made late in the afternoon on the same day.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Western District Court dismissed the prosecution's request for Jeon's detention warrant last October on charges of violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, stating that "he has a fixed residence and there is no risk of evidence destruction or flight."