40s Sentenced to Prison for Molesting Teenage Girl 85 Minutes After Drunk Driving Arrest

1st Trial, Sentenced to 1 Year Imprisonment

A man in his 40s who forcibly molested a teenage girl he had never met on the street shortly after being caught for drunk driving was sentenced to prison.

According to the legal community on the 10th, Judge Kim Dohyung, head judge of Criminal Division 1 at the Wonju Branch of Chuncheon District Court, sentenced A (47) to one year in prison on charges of forcible molestation and violation of the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving). He was also ordered to complete a 40-hour sexual violence treatment program. A, who was tried without detention, was taken into custody in court following the prison sentence.

On February 24 at 9:58 p.m., A was driving a passenger car under the influence with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.118% on a road in front of a public parking lot in Wonju, Gangwon Province, and was caught during a drunk driving crackdown after driving about 1.9 km. This level corresponds to license cancellation.

One hour and 25 minutes after being caught for drunk driving, at 11:23 p.m. the same day, A suddenly approached B (19), who was standing on a street in Wonju. A forcibly molested B by suddenly grabbing her from behind. A and B did not know each other at all. When B, startled by the sudden molestation, struggled and fell to the ground, A pressed B’s neck with one hand and put the other hand inside her top to touch her body.

Judge Kim stated, "The defendant committed the forcible molestation shortly after being caught for drunk driving. Considering the social danger of the method of molestation, the extreme fear and shame the victim must have felt, and the defendant’s prior drunk driving offenses, a prison sentence is inevitable." He added, "However, the sentence was determined taking into account that the defendant deposited a certain amount of money for the victim."

Both A and the prosecution appealed the first trial verdict.