Court: "Crime committed during probation, imprisonment inevitable"
Sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison
A man in his 30s who broke into a Hanwoo cattle farm and stole hundreds of bull semen samples was sentenced to prison in the first trial. It is known that the stolen Hanwoo semen he has taken so far is worth hundreds of millions of won.
On the 29th, Yonhap News reported that the Jeonju District Court Namwon Branch Criminal Division 1 (Judge Lee Won-sik) sentenced A (35), who was arrested and indicted on charges of nighttime trespassing and theft, to 1 year and 6 months in prison.
Hanwoo grazing on grass in a field (This photo is not directly related to the article.) [Photo by Yonhap News]
A was charged with stealing 252 straws worth of Hanwoo semen from a Hanwoo research institute in Jangsu-gun at around 7:34 p.m. on March 8. It is known that he sold about 60 of the stolen semen samples to nearby farms at 1.5 million won each.
A had even prepared a portable liquid nitrogen container in advance, which is presumed to have been to prevent the semen from deteriorating. He also removed the security camera storage device to confuse the investigation and fled using a taxi and on foot.
This was not his first crime. A is also accused of breaking into a cattle barn in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, on the 5th of the same month and stealing 60 Hanwoo semen samples. It was investigated that he entered through unlocked windows or doors of the research institute and farms late at night. During the crime, he also damaged the security camera storage device to evade police pursuit.
A research institute official who suffered damage from A’s crime told Yonhap News, "The stolen semen is the result of 20 years of research, more valuable than gold," and lamented, "We lost the research results of improving the bulls (breeding cattle) over several generations."
According to the investigation agency, he was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation period on the same charges in Daejeon on September 14 last year. He committed the same crime again during the probation period. It is reported that he used the money earned from selling some of the stolen semen for illegal online gambling.
The court judged that a prison sentence was inevitable considering that A had committed similar crimes in the past. The court stated, "The defendant has a history of multiple punishments for similar crimes, and there is little room for consideration in the motive of the crime, such as selling stolen goods to engage in illegal sports gambling. Although the defendant submitted several letters of apology during the investigation and trial process, and the previous court showed leniency, it is difficult to highly regard the sincerity of the letters of apology submitted while in custody."
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