Tag: sexual assault

I don’t think you have to be female to think something is wrong at this university:

Students at Seoul Women’s University rallied outside Nowon Police Station, Tuesday, protesting a defamation lawsuit filed by a professor accused of sexual misconduct. The demonstration was organized by the university’s feminist group, “Rhinoceros Horn.”

Around 500 participants, including students, alumni and professors, demanded that police dismiss the case against students who had posted statements criticizing the professor.

The protest stems from allegations that a German language and literature professor, identified as “A,” sexually harassed and assaulted students. After receiving a report in July 2022, the university conducted an investigation and imposed a three-month pay reduction as punishment.

Students learned of the incident over a year later in September 2023 and criticized the university’s handling of the case. They posted statements urging the separation of the perpetrator from campus and stronger protection for victims.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if this professor sexually assaulted students he of course should have been fired, but why weren’t the police involved?

It wasn’t that long ago actions like this was not taken seriously by Korean courts. It is good to see the progress made holding these weirdos accountable:

The court sentenced a pastor in his 40s to prison and arrested him in court for forcibly harassing a woman in her 20s who was a believer and related to a heterogeneous cousin.

According to the legal community on the 28th, the Chuncheon District Court’s Wonju Branch 1 (Chief Judge Lee Soo-woong) sentenced A (41) to three years in prison and arrested him without detention on charges of violating the Special Act on Sexual Violence Crimes Punishment.

The court also ordered the completion of a 40-hour sexual violence treatment program and restrictions on employment for five years at facilities related to children, adolescents, and the disabled, respectively.

A, a church pastor, was indicted on charges of hugging B and touching her body by putting her hand inside her clothes while talking to B (25, female), a member and heterogeneous cousin, at 2 p.m. on June 23 last year.

At the time, the victim refused, saying to A, “What’s wrong with you, I’ll report it,” but “There are times when I can’t control myself because there are many male hormones.” It was revealed through the indictment that he continued to molest, saying, “I wanted to touch it normally.”

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest example of the weaponization of the Army’s SHARP program:

Sherry Bunn, Meredith’s attorney, said the decision to dismiss was based on evidence obtained during the law enforcement investigation into Meredith’s wife, Col. Ann Meredith, who was fired in March from her command of the 89th Military Police Brigade at Fort Cavazos.

Ann Meredith was fired because she sent a text message that was considered interfering with the investigation into her husband, according to a post to her personal Facebook page. She was disciplined through administrative action, according to Fort Cavazos. 

The evidence shows Jon Meredith’s “accuser and her husband, a lieutenant colonel, colluded to create a false sexual-assault allegation against Meredith because the accuser’s husband was upset about the rater comments on his officer evaluation report,” Bunn said. The evidence was discovered in the couple’s cell phone messages from October 2022, she said. 

Bunn said she only recently gained access to the evidence from Ann Meredith’s file, but she said the Army has had it for the past year.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but Army investigators had this evidence for a year and did not disclose it to the judge. Over the past year COL Meredith has been a regular feature in the news shredding his reputation over what has turned out to be a false accusation. I wonder if any charges will brought against the people that conspired to make the false allegation?

You would think this person would have been on a sex offender registry that would have prevented him from working with children:

Gyeonggi Province’s Office of Education said Tuesday that a person convicted of the sexual assault of a vulnerable middle school student 13 years ago later worked as a teacher at an elementary school, confirming a recent online revelation that sparked public outrage.

The office said the person, however, is currently not working at the school. It refused to give more details, citing the protection of personal information.

An anonymous claim was made last Saturday on an online community, Bobae Dream, that one of the 16 perpetrators of the 2010 sexual attack on the underage girl has become a teacher at an elementary school in Gwanggyo, Gyeonggi Province, while another had become a fireman. “This is where (he or she) crossed the line,” said the post’s writer, who claimed to be an acquaintance of the two.

The 2010 group rape case belatedly sparked public outcry in 2012, when the penalties the offenders received became known — one year of supervision by a probation officer and 40 hours of reformative education. The reason for the leniency was because the offenders were minors at the time of the crime and they had no previous criminal record.

Korea Herald

It seems like common sense to keep these sex offenders away from schools:

Last month, Park Byung-hwa, 39, a serial rapist who was released after 15 years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting 10 women between December 2002 and October 2007, settled in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. He moved into a residential district where two elementary schools and one high school are located within a three kilometers radius of his home. 

Residents have held multiple rallies calling for Park’s eviction. In response, the local government has additionally installed 30 surveillance cameras in the area and is distributing window locking devices and safety alarm gadgets to women living nearby, but such measures have done little to assuage their concerns about possible re-offending by the ex-convict.

Even though registered sex offenders are closely monitored by probation officers, an absence of restrictions blocking heinous criminals from residing near schools and child-related facilities is highly unnerving for residents in the neighborhood.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting how this complaint comes out after the actor becomes world famous from his role in Squid Game:

“Squid Game” actor O Yeong-su has been indicted on charges of sexual misconduct, judicial officials said Friday.

The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office indicted the 78-year-old O without detention Thursday over an allegation that he inappropriately touched the body of a woman in mid-2017, the officials said.

The case dates back to December last year, when the alleged victim filed a complaint against O with police.

Police then closed the case without filing any charge against the actor in April but the prosecution later reopened the investigation at the request of the victim.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but from what I have read O Yeong-su claims that five years ago he held the woman’s hand to guide her around a lake.

It is pretty amazing that this guy only got 15 years for raping 11 children. The odds seem high that at some point he is going to do this again:

The prosecution requested the court to issue an arrest warrant for serial child rapist Kim Geun-sik, Saturday, two days before he was set to be released from prison, as a woman filed charges that he raped her 16 years ago when she was a minor.

Kim was expected to be released this Monday after serving 15 years in jail on charges of having raped 11 minors.

According to the prosecution, the victim recently recognized Kim’s face as the man who sexually assaulted her 16 years ago, as the media began to report on his release using his mugshot photo. She filed new charges against him with the prosecution.

Prosecutors said they analyzed relevant evidence and proved that Kim had been the attacker in the case. 

“Not only is Kim’s crime very serious, but also there’s a possibility of Kim running away as he has no permanent residence at the moment. He could recommit such crimes, or do harm to the victims. That’s why we requested an arrest warrant,” the prosecution said.

If Kim is released Monday, he is scheduled to move into a facility affiliated with the justice ministry that helps released prisoners reintegrate into society, by offering housing as well as psychiatric, educational and other services, similar to what is known in English as a “halfway house.” As Kim was assigned to enter such a facility located in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, residents who have children attending school nearby have expressed their worries. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

At least this guy is no longer in classroom and behind bars where he belongs:

An elementary school teacher has been sentenced to seven years in prison for inducing more than 100 teenage girls to film sexually exploitative materials and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old, a court said Monday. 

The man, in his 30s, who had taught at an elementary school in Seoul since 2012, was indicted on charges of possessing 1,910 items of sexually abusive content filmed by about 120 teenagers he met through social media between 2015 and 2021. 

He was also found to have sexually assaulted then a 13-year-old girl in 2020 at a motel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If you are a male soldier stationed in Daegu here is something to be aware of:

Male soldiers based at Baumholder in Germany were more at risk of being sexually assaulted than at any other Army post, according to a service-commissioned study that found two other posts in Germany with similar risks.

A Rand Corp. report released Friday examined sexual assault data at U.S. Army bases worldwide and found elevated risks of male sexual assault at Vilseck and Landstuhl in Germany.  (……..)

When adjusting for key factors such as age, marital status and education, LRMC rated as the riskiest, followed by Baumholder and Daegu, South Korea, the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but for sexual assaults on women Camp Humphreys and bases in Daegu ranked 7th and 8th across the Army which is really high as well.

If this guy thought he had any chance of getting away with this, he must realize now that he is likely going to jail with the focus on the ROK military after the suicide of ROK Air Force NCO:

An Army battalion commander has come under investigation for allegedly sexually harassing three junior members of his base, officials said Thursday.

The case was belatedly known to the media amid huge public outrage over the suicide of a sexually abused female Air Force noncommissioned officer.

According to the officials, the lieutenant colonel of an Army base in Gangwon Province is suspected of forcibly having sexual contact with three female officers and making inappropriate comments repeatedly. 

As one of the victims reported the case to her division commander in mid-May, the suspect was relieved of duty, sent to another base and has come under probe by the Army Central Investigation Division, the officials said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.