‘Victim Report Leak’ Public Institution Sexual Harassment Counselor... Acquitted in First Trial

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] A sexual harassment grievance counselor at a public institution who was prosecuted for leaking reports to the perpetrator after consulting with sexual violence victims was acquitted in the first trial.

The Seoul Western District Court Criminal Division 8 (Presiding Judge Kim Woojeong) on the 30th acquitted Senior Researcher A of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (Mun Gwangyeon), a public institution under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who was indicted for perjury. The prosecution had previously sought a one-year prison sentence for A.

According to the court, A is accused of giving false testimony in a workplace sexual harassment trial, stating that “he did not know about the victim’s sexual harassment and never informed the perpetrator of the report.” In 2017, during the process where the perpetrator of workplace power-based sexual harassment separately called victims B and C to coax and threaten them, it is known that he made statements to them that would have been difficult without knowing detailed report contents. This occurred shortly after B and C told A, who was a sexual grievance counselor at Mun Gwangyeon, about the victimization.

Last year, in the workplace sexual harassment trial, A denied the perjury charges, stating, “B only reported C’s victimization on her behalf and did not mention her own victimization, and did not disclose C’s victimization to the sexual harassment perpetrator.”

The court ruled, “It is possible that A recognized only one victim as a sexual harassment victim during interviews with multiple victims and did not testify contrary to that memory,” and “Based solely on the evidence submitted by the prosecution, it is difficult to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that A heard the victimization from the perpetrator during the interview or falsely testified remembering that he heard it.”