She asked to be sent home, but "Can't you see I'm waiting?"... Guilty verdict in 'Chungju Female Middle School Students Group Sexual Assault' case

Not Guilty in First Trial → Guilty in Second Trial
Defendant Receives Reduced Prison Sentence

The appellate court of the 'Chungju Group Sexual Assault Case,' which gained attention alongside the renewed focus on the 'Miryang Sexual Assault Case,' overturned the first trial's verdict and found the defendants guilty. According to the legal community on the 19th, the Daejeon High Court Cheongju Division 1 Criminal Department (Presiding Judge Park Eun-young) overturned the first trial that acquitted five defendants including A (20), who were charged with violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (special rape), and sentenced them to 2 years and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation.

Daejeon District Court. [Photo by Asia Economy DB]

They were tried on charges of sexually assaulting a female middle school student they knew at a lodging facility in Chungju in October 2020 during their high school years. Despite the victim repeatedly asking to be taken home, they committed coercive sexual assault while making statements such as "Take off your clothes," "Can't you see someone waiting?" and "Hurry up."

The first trial court accepted the defendants' claims, stating, "Since there were statements indicating that the victim did not explicitly refuse sexual intercourse or consented, the crime was not proven enough to consider that the defendants forcibly committed sexual assault." The prosecution appealed by additionally applying the preliminary charge of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles against Sexual Abuse (deception, etc.), and the second trial court found the preliminary charges guilty for eight of the defendants except for B.

Moreover, although the defendants claimed that they had consensual sexual relations with the victim, the second trial court did not accept this. The court stated, "The perpetrators, who were one year senior, were not in a relationship where they could have consensual sexual relations with the victim based on mutual romantic feelings, and it appears they took advantage of the victim's fear from their usual behavior. Considering that two or more people sexually assaulted the victim in the same space and that the sexual acts were sadistic, it is difficult to see it as consensual."

However, three defendants who were sentenced to 3 years and 6 months to 5 years in prison in the first trial for leading the crime received reduced sentences in recognition of their efforts to compensate the victim. B (20), who was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in the first trial, had his sentence reduced to 2 years and 6 months with a 3-year probation; C (20), sentenced to 3 years and 6 months, was reduced to 2 years and 6 months; and D (20), sentenced to 5 years, was reduced to 4 years.