“The black box saved my life”... Man in his 20s found not guilty on charges of molesting a middle school student

A man in his 20s who was put on trial on charges of molesting a middle school student he met through a chat app was acquitted in the first trial and also in the appeals court.

Criminal Division 4-2 of the Seoul High Court (Chief Judges Kwon Hyuk-jung, Hwang Jin-gu, and Ji Young-nan) dismissed the prosecution's appeal and upheld the original trial decision that acquitted Mr. A (27), who was indicted on charges of violation of the law on sexual protection of children and adolescents (forcible molestation) on the 11th of last month.

Mr. A is accused of molesting Ms. B (then 16 years old) in a vehicle on two occasions in November 2022.

It was confirmed that Mr. A became acquainted with Ms. B through a mobile chat app, and that the date of the incident was their second meeting. During the investigation, Ms. B was found to have made a statement to the effect that ‘Mr. A forcibly touched important parts of her body even though she refused several times.’ The prosecution requested a fine of 10 million won for Mr. A based on Ms. B's statement.

At the trial, Mr. A's legal representative pleaded not guilty based on the fact that the victim's statement was inaccurate and inconsistent. In addition, the vehicle's black box, which recorded the scene at the time of the incident, was submitted as evidence.

After reviewing the black box transcript and statements, the first trial court decided that it was difficult to say that Mr. A molested Ms. B. The court declared the victim not guilty, saying, "The victim's statement was overturned several times even when it reached this court, and the evidence submitted did not contain anything that could lead to inference whether molestation occurred."

Attorney Oh Gyeong-hoon of Daeryun Law Firm (Limited), who is Mr. A's legal representative, said, "In this case, the victim's claims kept changing from the investigation stage, and it was difficult to view the contradictions in the victim's statement as simply errors due to the passage of time or differences in detailed description methods. In particular, when compared with the file recorded in the black box at the time of the incident, there were parts that were different from the facts. Based on these details, we were able to prove that Mr. A did not molest the victim and were acquitted." explained.

Reporter Hwang Jeong-won (jwhwang@mt.co.kr)

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"The black box saved the life"... Man in his 20s found not guilty on charges of molesting a middle school student (link)