A district court on Thursday sentenced a 24-year-old man to life in prison for kidnapping and raping an eight-year-old girl in the southern city of Naju.

The defendant, only identified by his surname Koh, was found guilty of abducting the sleeping elementary school first-grader from her home and brutally raping her before trying to kill her in August in Naju, 350 kilometers south of Seoul.

The Gwangju District Court also ordered that Koh be subject to hormonal treatment that suppresses sexual impulses for five years, that he wear an electronic monitoring anklet for 30 years and that his personal information be made available to the public for 10 years if he is released from prison on parole.

"(Koh) should be isolated from the society forever, considering the various factors such as the brutality of his crime and the amount of damage (suffered by the victim)," Judge Lee Sang-hyun said in his ruling.

The high-profile case sent a shock wave across the country, prompting President Lee Myung-bak to offer a public apology and raising alarm bells over violent sexual assaults victimizing women and children.

As part of efforts to root out repeated sexual assaults against women and children, the government last year expanded the use of "chemical castration" for sex offenders who are at risk of repeating their crimes.

In a landmark ruling, a Seoul court earlier this month ordered the first chemical castration of a 31-year-old pedophile. (Yonhap News)