"In Seoul, there is a murder without asking..." Residents reacted 'absurdly' to the sexual assault that occurred in the island village.

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: October 22, 2024 (Tue)
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Attorney Kim Kang-ho

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter dualized): Why is there a 180-degree different story in stating a case when you've been through the same time, the same space, and the same thing? In 2016, a very ugly crime occurred on the island of Heuksando in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, that I don't even want to say. It was a case in which three men, who were parents and villagers, sexually assaulted a woman A, who was a teacher at an elementary school in Heuksando. Their attitude of denying the crime and not remembering it to the end, even though all the evidence was sufficient, made the public angry at the time hotter. But it wasn't just that. At the time, the interviews of some local people, who seemed to have priority over the victims, were released, causing even more controversy. But this was not the end of the controversy. What other amazing things happened? Incident X file starts right now. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Kim Kang-ho of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◇ Attorney Kim Kang-ho (hereinafter referred to as Kim Kang-ho): Yes, hello. This is lawyer Kim Kang-ho of LOEL Law Firm.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: The incident that we will look at today happened in Heuksando Island, an island village in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do. I remember that the case quickly attracted attention because there was a message on the Internet community at the time asking for help with her girlfriend.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. On the 23rd, the day after the incident, a person believed to be A's boyfriend told an Internet community, "Help me. I asked for the help of netizens by posting the title, "My girlfriend was taken away."

◆ Won-hwa Lee: What happened?

◇Kim Kang-ho: On May 21, 2016, around 6 p.m., A, a female teacher who was working at an elementary school on an island in Sinan-gun, stopped by a sushi restaurant run by her father, Park. On this day, all the fellow teachers who stayed in the official residence went out to land on Saturday, so A visited the restaurant alone to eat. The restaurant is about 2km away from the school building, so Mr. A often visited it for meals. Mr. Park, the owner of the restaurant and a parent, welcomed Mr. A, a female teacher who came to eat alone. He naturally offered alcohol at the meal and even called in a neighbor, Lee, who runs a fish farming business, to join him. Mr. Park and Mr. Lee are known to be close enough to call them uncle nephews. Mr. A usually doesn't drink well and had plans to travel the next day, but he drank about 10 cups of ginseng liquor due to Mr. Park's strong recommendation. The Damgeumju that Mr. A drank was a 35- to 43-degree solo, and he was so drunk that he vomited twice while drinking. When A became intoxicated and lost his mind, Park walked him to the official residence by car around 11 p.m. On the day of the incident, all the other teachers were out on land, so only A was staying in the official residence. But Park went inside the accommodation and raped A.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: There were four people at the drinking party, including a female teacher, and one of them committed sexual assault?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, but that wasn't the end. Lee then drove to the official residence. After confirming that Park's car had left the official residence, Lee entered the accommodation and raped A. Mr. Park then called Mr. Kim.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: That's strange. Why did you call?

◇Kim Kang-ho: I think it was to ask him to come to the accommodation. Kim showed up at the accommodation after receiving a call from Park, sent Lee out, and raped A. And after a while, Lee returned to the accommodation and raped her again.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I heard that the three of them were plotting sexual assault from the beginning. That's why I suspect they were on the phone, but how did this situation become known?

◇Kim Kang-ho: This case could have been buried as it was, but the female teacher responded courageously and calmly. Mr. A, who came to his senses, reported at 2:02 a.m. on the 22nd at 112. The police who were dispatched brought A to the police station to help him stabilize, and the government office made every effort to investigate the incident by collecting primary evidence such as blankets and semen with emergency kits.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: That's a relief.

◇Kim Kang-ho: The police box then contacted the local health center, but they found out that the health center did not have the conditions to collect evidence of sexual assault, so we took measures to allow A to go out to Mokpo on the first boat for an accurate examination. After stabilizing at the police station, Mr. A waited for the first boat without washing himself according to the police chief's words about gathering evidence.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I was really surprised and scared, and my mental shock must have been this bad, but I think he responded very calmly.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. Meanwhile, in the initial police investigation, Park, Lee, and Kim all denied the allegations of sexual assault. Afterwards, Park admitted to the sexual harassment charge, but insisted that she had to close the restaurant, so she took her to the official residence, touched her body, and did not sexually assault her, stressing that she covered the teacher with a blanket at the restaurant. Lee also denied the allegations of sexual assault, saying he visited the official residence to bring him a cell phone that A left at the restaurant, and Kim denied the allegations, saying, "I saw Lee enter A's accommodation because there was no one in the restaurant and I was told to go and look at it because something could happen."

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Did he say that because he thought there was no evidence?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. However, Park's body hair was found in the government office blanket. In addition, the DNA test of the National Forensic Service found that Lee and Kim's DNA were detected in A's body, confirming the crime. Lee and Kim, who strongly denied the allegations, reportedly admitted the charges after DNA detection.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: The crime itself was not supposed to be a bad thing, but the words you said when you were investigated by the police are really bad. I'm so nervous about being the same human being.

◇Kim Kang-ho: It's a case of committing a serious crime to my child's teacher. In addition, during the trial, it was revealed that they filmed the rape of A on their mobile phone.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: That's shocking.

◇Kim Kang-ho: And the attitude of the perpetrators at the time caused considerable anger, but there were other anger triggers.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: What happened?

◇Kim Kang-ho: It was the reaction of the residents. One resident said, "Don't ask me in Seoul, so I kill people and mutilated people, and young people can do that. If you think so, there's nowhere to go. If you're worried, you shouldn't come." The other residents are men, so you know. He said that even if the men living alone were 80, they could not bear it in the face of such temptation. Another resident has a bad atmosphere. There were reactions that did not think of the victim, such as saying, "I hope you do it in moderation because customers will also fall."

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Of course, not all residents agreed with such an opinion, but was it the same in the salt farm slave case in Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, and should I call it selfishness in a closed area called an island? I think it was a moment when I had a lot of things to think about.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. It's a bittersweet, although it's a statement from some residents.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Of course, it would have been handed over to the trial, and I wonder what charges were applied and how the sentence came out.

◇Kim Kang-ho: All three were charged with murder, including rape in violation of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, and Lee was charged with using cameras in violation of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, and Kim was charged with injury, including rape, violation of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, and invasion of a residence. And the prosecution demanded 17 years, 22 years, and 25 years in prison for Park and Lee Kim, respectively. The court sentenced them to 10 years in prison and 12 years and 15 years, respectively.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Among the defendants you mentioned, Kim seems to have received almost the maximum sentence, what was different from the other defendants?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Kim was found to be the culprit of an unsolved case in 2007, in which he broke into a studio apartment in Daejeon, punched a 20-year-old woman, overpowered her, and raped her. At that time, the investigation authorities kept the criminal's DNA, but after the female teacher's sexual assault, it was found that it matched Kim's DNA, so the charges were added.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: You really did all kinds of things. Anyway, the most controversial part of this trial was whether or not they conspired in advance. Why was this legally important?

◇Kim Kang-ho: If the conspiracy relationship is recognized, each person will be jointly responsible for the attempted crime of sexual assault, but if it is denied, it will only be punished for his own attempted sexual assault. To tell you the points that can be seen as a public offering relationship, first, the police's CCTV analysis confirmed that Park's car left the sushi restaurant and Lee's car left 30 seconds later. Twenty minutes after Lee's car left, Kim also headed to the official residence. Second, CCTV confirmed that the three suspects met about 100 meters away from the official residence around 1 a.m. on the 22nd, shortly after the crime. On the third day, around 7 a.m., the three met again at Park's restaurant. Finally, Park and Kim tried to talk on the phone six times in the two hours before and after the crime. Kim called Park five times in a row who didn't answer the phone.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Of course, the charges of conspiracy were admitted, right?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Unfortunately, the first trial did not recognize a conspiracy relationship for the attempted felony crime, which is a part of the charges. As of midnight on the 21st, they each committed two crimes. In the first crime, the victim strongly resisted and all three failed to commit the crime, but he tried again after midnight and raped the victim who was completely asleep. The first trial sentenced them to 12, 13 and 18 years in prison, respectively, for the first crime, judging that they did not conspire, noting that they initially moved to the government office in different vehicles.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I don't really understand why the conspiracy relationship was not recognized in the first place. Because even if it was not a preliminary conspiracy, I think it could have been considered that the conspiracy was committed at least on the spot or just before the crime. The appeals court must have been different, right?

◇Kim Kang-ho: That was not the case. Rather, in the appeal trial, the perpetrators were sentenced to 7 years and 8 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, for agreeing with the victim.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I'm sure there are cases where people who listen say they don't understand why the victim agreed, but it's not easy to deal with legally, right?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. I don't know exactly why the agreement was reached, but the perpetrator's continued demand for agreement may have been burdensome as a teacher, and the disciple may have been on his mind in that the perpetrator is a parent.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Anyway, I remember that the appeals court sentence came out and public opinion was very angry. It ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, didn't it?

◇ Kim Kang-ho: Yes, fortunately, the Supreme Court broke the original ruling and sent it back to the High Court, asking the defendants to re-judge some of the charges that they were acquitted for failing to recognize the conspiracy-related joint crimes. After receiving the case back, the high court sentenced him to 10 years, 12 years and 15 years in prison, a sentence higher than the appellate court, and ordered him to complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment lectures. The perpetrators appealed, but they were eventually dismissed and the above sentence was confirmed. This concludes the two-year trial.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: The X-Files of the Case Today, we have a look at the really ugly case that forced a female teacher to drink alcohol and committed mass sexual assault that should never happen again. It is also an incident that shocked the Republic of Korea in many ways. It took as many as five trials and two years for the perpetrators to get a reasonable verdict. In fact, it seems to remain a question mark whether the price of the sin committed is that sufficient. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.