Restaurant Owner Who Stroked and Grabbed Part-Time Worker Criminally Fined ₩7 Million for Workplace Sexual Assault
A restaurant owner who touched and grabbed a female part-time employee on four occasions in December 2024 has been convicted of workplace sexual assault under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes and criminally fined ₩7 million. Here are the key points.
Facts
- In December 2024, A, who operated a restaurant in Chungju, touched and stroked the head, waist, and arms of B, a woman in her twenties working part-time at his establishment, and on one occasion grabbed both of her wrists without apparent reason and made her sit down — across four separate incidents.
- A denied the charges throughout the proceedings.
Court Decision
- Cheongju District Court, Chungju Branch (Criminal Division 1, Judge Kim Yeon-su) convicted A and imposed a fine of ₩7 million.
- The court found B’s account credible for two reasons: chat records showed B had confided in a friend about the incidents shortly after they occurred, and B’s account was detailed and consistent. A’s own statements had been inconsistent during the proceedings, which further supported the victim’s version of events.
- In setting the fine rather than a custodial sentence, the court noted that the degree of the physical contact was not severe.
Key Takeaways
- The offense of workplace sexual assault under the Special Cases Act applies where an employer or person in a position of authority uses that authority to commit indecent conduct — the employment relationship itself is the aggravating factor, not merely the physical setting.
- Physical contact that might appear minor in isolation — stroking hair, touching the waist, grabbing wrists — can constitute criminal sexual assault where it is nonconsensual, repeated, and occurs within an authority relationship that limits the victim’s ability to object freely.
- Contemporaneous disclosures to a third party — here, chat messages sent to a friend at the time — are treated as corroborating evidence that the events occurred as described, even without physical evidence.
- Inconsistency in a defendant’s own statements during proceedings weighs against credibility and in favor of the victim’s account.
- The degree of physical contact is a factor in calibrating the sentence — less severe contact may result in a fine rather than imprisonment, even where the conduct is unambiguously criminal.
Why This Matters
This case is a straightforward illustration of how Korean sexual offense law treats the employer-employee power dynamic as an element of the offense rather than mere context. Part-time workers in small businesses — who are often economically vulnerable and may fear retaliation for reporting — are entitled to the same criminal law protections as any other employee, and the workplace authority relationship makes unwanted physical contact more serious, not less. For small business operators, it is a reminder that repeated nonconsensual touching of employees, however casual it may feel from the perpetrator’s perspective, is criminal conduct.
Article: https://www.munhwa.com/article/11618401?ref=naver
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