Korea’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man who “massaged” an inebriated woman in a late night train fits the profile of a sex offender and he must be retried accordingly.
The man, previously acquitted on grounds that he lacked intent, will be tried again at the Seoul Central Court, according to Justice Park Bo-young of the Supreme Court.
(123RF)
Justice Park’s announcement said the “act of semi-coercive molestation does not require deliberate objective for sexual gratification” and that “laying an unconscious woman’s head on (his) lap and massaging her arms, with whom the defendant had no existing relationship, can be seen as a violation of her sexual freedom regardless of the defendant’s claim that he only meant to help.”
The defendant, surnamed Choi and 46 years old at the time of the incident, purposefully moved to sit next to a female university student who was intoxicated beyond control in a subway train around midnight. He then laid her head on his lap and massaged her shoulders and arms, despite her showing signs of protest.
The case came to the legal authorities’ attention when another passenger who suspected Choi’s motives to be indecent, reported him to the police.
In the first trial, Choi was fined 1 million won ($860) under a verdict that said, “Based on the plaintiff’s gender and age, the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, the physical contact and the circumstances surrounding, the defendant’s actions fit that of sexual molestation.”
The appeal, however, overturned the case and ruled Choi innocent, as he had “only tried to help the plaintiff and did not intend to forcibly molest her in the presence of other passengers.”
The incident took place in 2012 on the night of Sept. 28.
Choi is likely to be fined in the following trial.
By Lim Jeong-yeo (
kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)
