The prosecution on Tuesday indicted former National Assembly speaker Park Hee-tae without detention for sexually harassing a female gold caddie in Wonju, Gangwon Province, earlier this year.
The 76-year-old political heavyweight ― as a standing adviser to the ruling Saenuri Party ― was embroiled in a scandal in September after the golf caddie, 23, filed a police complaint against him alleging inappropriate physical contact several times at a golf course.
While there were speculations that investigative authorities would wrap up the case by only levying criminal fines on Park, the Chuncheon District Court has decided to put him on trial.
Over the past two months, the prosecution conducted a written-based probe on Park without summoning him.
Park offered a ludicrous explanation for his behavior. He claimed that being a father to two daughters, he is in the habit of telling them how pretty and cute they were. Viewing the caddie like his granddaughter, he told her she was cute, he said.
A number of people are believed to have witnessed his alleged harassment of the female employee.
The woman reportedly asked to change places with another caddy after playing nine holes, so the managers replaced her with a male caddie. According to police officers, managers at the golf course said that it is very rare for a caddie to request a change. The golfers sometimes ask for such a change when the assigned person is doing a poor job, they added.
Park was quoted by a news provider as saying, “I just poked her on the breast once, and this was to show my affection. She didn’t express displeasure at that time.”
Before his life as a lawmaker at the Saenuri Party and National Assembly, Park worked as a public prosecutor and senior official of the Justice Ministry from 1966 to 1987.
The six-term lawmaker Park served as the speaker of the National Assembly from 2010 to 2012 during the Lee Myung-bak administration.
