The guys who gang-raped me, 13 years later…”went to a prestigious university, became a teacher.”

Thirteen years ago, the nation was outraged when 16 high school students gang-raped a disabled girl.

None of the students faced criminal charges먹튀검증, and the repercussions of the incident are still being felt today.

A group of high school students run into a courtroom with jumpers covering their faces.

They are 16 high school students accused of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled middle school girl multiple times over the course of a month in May 2010.

They had committed atrocities that are hard to fathom, including luring the middle school girl, whom they had gotten to know through internet chat, onto the roof of a building and forcibly molesting her.

But the court was lenient.

It dismissed the arrest warrants for the offending students and transferred the case to the juvenile division instead of the criminal division.

This was because they had no prior criminal history, had settled with the victim, and were at a critical juncture in their lives, including college admissions.

In addition, the court kept the proceedings and outcome of the trial completely private to protect the identities of the students.

The court even postponed the sentencing until after the SATs to accommodate the high school seniors.

As a result, all 16 students were sentenced to probation, with no criminal record.

It was criticized as a de facto acquittal.

[Lee Won-pyo, Secretary General of the National Disability Rights Coalition (2011)] : The court is giving this message that it’s okay to do this, it’s okay, as long as I live well and my family is strong, I can be okay, even if I do something wrong.

[Attorney Jaehyun] Compared to 13 years ago, there have been more cases of serious sexual offenses being referred to criminal trials rather than juvenile protection trials in recent years, and I think that reflects the current public opinion and the change in perception of sexual offenses. However, the decision to refer a case to a juvenile protection trial or to a criminal trial does not necessarily depend solely on the seriousness or gravity of the crime itself. It is based on a combination of things, including the likelihood of rehabilitation of the juvenile in care, and the circumstances under which the case occurred…]

The fallout from this verdict was that it was labeled a get-out-of-jail-free card.

The very next day, one of the perpetrators was accepted into Sungkyunkwan University’s rolling admissions program.

The sexual assault was omitted from his personal statement and teacher recommendation letters submitted to the university.

[Kim Yoon-bae / Dean of Admissions, Sungkyunkwan University (2012): There was no mention of the student’s involvement in the incident in any of the letters of recommendation. He was praised for his excellent character].

The homeroom teacher who wrote the letter of recommendation said that it was difficult to refuse the student and her parents’ request to write the letter because of her volunteer experience.

[School official (in 2012): The student asked me to write (the letter) even though the trial was not over, and it was difficult for me as a homeroom teacher not to write it, so I wrote it].

However, 13 years later, the case continues to be open and shut.

One of the perpetrators is now working as an elementary school teacher in Gyeonggi Province.

This was posted on an online community on the 20th.

The poster, who identified himself as an acquaintance of the perpetrator, claimed that the perpetrators were not properly punished and that some of them are now in public service, including elementary school teachers and firefighters.

Some even stated that they had gone to prestigious universities and were living well.

As the story gained traction, education authorities immediately launched an investigation.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education said it had removed the teacher named as the person in question from her job.

[Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education: It is true that the teacher is not working, but it is a matter that we are investigating, so I think it is difficult to say that we are investigating].

However, the named teacher reportedly stated that the article was untrue and unfair.

However, even if the contents of the article are found to be true, it is expected that it will be difficult to take any action because it happened before the teacher was appointed and the legal punishment is over.

[Attorney Kim Jin-young: A sex crime conviction is a disqualification for appointment under the Education Officials Act, so if the criminal punishment had been carried out at that time instead of juvenile protection, he would not have been appointed, and I think that in the future, such sex crimes and violent crimes should be judged more carefully].

At the time of the verdict, the Korean Federation of Women’s Organizations cited the case as a representative example of a stumbling block in sexual assault trials.

Thirteen years later, it still seems to be a stumbling block for our society.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)