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50 Assaults Over Two Years, Then an Attempted Rape: Corporate Executive Gets Suspended Sentence

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A company executive in his sixties who habitually groped a subordinate employee on 50 occasions over two years — and then attempted to rape her in a company meeting room while she was working alone at night — has received a three-year suspended sentence. The outcome has attracted public criticism. Here are the key points.

Facts

  • From November 2019 to December 2021, A, an executive at an export-import inspection company in Ulsan, habitually touched and kissed B, a subordinate employee, on 50 separate occasions. B consistently refused and objected throughout this period, but A continued.
  • In February 2022, A learned B was working alone at night, summoned her to a meeting room under the pretext of having something to discuss, knocked her onto a sofa, and attempted to rape her. B fled, and the attempt was not completed.
  • A was charged with habitual forced indecent conduct and attempted rape.

Court Decision

  • Ulsan District Court (Criminal Division 12, Judge Lee Yeong-je) sentenced A to three years in prison, suspended for five years, along with 200 hours of community service and a mandatory 40-hour sexual violence treatment program.
  • The court found the conduct seriously poor in character — habitual abuse of a subordinate over years, culminating in an attempted rape on company premises.
  • In mitigation, the court credited a settlement with B in which she expressed that she did not wish to see A punished.

Why the Outcome Has Drawn Criticism

  • The combination of 50 incidents of habitual assault over two years and an attempted rape — by a supervisor who persisted despite repeated rejections — represents serious and sustained predatory conduct in a workplace setting.
  • The five-year suspension period for a three-year sentence is the maximum available under Korean law, suggesting the court found the conduct at the outer edge of what a suspended sentence could accommodate.
  • The weight given to the victim’s non-punishment wish — and the settlement that produced it — has drawn public comment about whether settlements between workplace offenders who hold power over their victims genuinely reflect the victim’s free choice, particularly where the employment relationship may create implicit pressure to resolve matters quietly.

Key Takeaways

  • Habitual sexual assault in a workplace setting, combined with an attempted rape, is treated as seriously poor conduct by Korean courts — but post-conviction settlement with the victim and expression of non-punishment wishes remain powerful mitigating factors that can result in suspended sentences even in serious cases.
  • The suspended sentence does not mean A faces no consequences — the five-year probation period, 200 hours of community service, and mandatory treatment program are significant — but he will not serve prison time unless he reoffends during the suspension period.
  • This case, alongside the earlier case of the middle school teacher whose sentence was halved on appeal after settlements with victims, reflects an ongoing tension in Korean sentencing between the value placed on victim compensation and reconciliation on one hand, and the seriousness of systematic sexual abuse of subordinates on the other.
  • For workplace sexual misconduct cases specifically, the power imbalance between executive and subordinate is relevant both to the seriousness of the offense and to the voluntariness of any settlement reached in its aftermath.

Why This Matters

For practitioners and HR professionals, this case underscores that Korean courts will consider victim settlements as weighty mitigating factors even in cases involving prolonged, systematic sexual abuse — a feature of the sentencing system that produces outcomes many find difficult to reconcile with the gravity of the underlying conduct. For policymakers and victim advocates, it raises questions about whether the current framework adequately accounts for the power dynamics that shape settlement decisions in workplace sexual misconduct cases, and whether greater constraints on mitigation are warranted where the offender held supervisory authority over the victim throughout the period of abuse.

Article: https://ichannela.com/news/detail/000000552292.do

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