A man in his 50s commits adultery with a co-worker who fell asleep after taking sleeping pills... Sentenced after plea of ​​not guilty

A man in his 50s was sentenced to prison on charges of sexually assaulting a co-worker who was asleep after taking sleeping pills.

According to the legal community on the 13th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Eastern Branch of the Busan District Court sentenced Mr. A, in his 50s, to three years in prison on the 12th of last month on charges of quasi-rape. He was also ordered to complete a 40-hour sexual violence treatment program and to be restricted from employment at child and youth-related institutions for three years.

Mr. A has been indicted on charges of adultery with Mr. B, a junior colleague at work, who fell asleep after taking sleeping pills on several occasions since 2021. After learning of Mr. A's crime, Mr. B forgave Mr. A several times, but as the same thing continued to happen, he eventually filed a complaint with the investigative agency.

Mr. A denied the charges, saying that Mr. B was not in a state of inability to resist and that they had entered into a relationship after agreement. At the same time, he claimed that there was a possibility that the complaint was false, saying that he continued to work with Mr. B even after the incident and had regular conversations with him. Accordingly, the police and prosecutors acquitted him of the charges, but he appealed and the trial began.

The court did not acknowledge Mr. A’s claim. The court ruled, “If you look at the content of the conversation between Mr. A and Mr. B, you can only see the content that could have been exchanged as part of a business relationship, and there is nothing to judge that they maintained a romantic relationship. The probative value of the victim, B’s statement, cannot be rejected based solely on the fact that they worked together for a while after filing the complaint.” At the same time, the ruling said, “Although there is the fact that Mr. B protested several times, there is no evidence that the relationship was consensual, so it can be seen that Mr. A committed the crime by recognizing that Mr. B was asleep.”

The court explained the reason for the sentencing, saying, “We took into account the fact that Mr. A’s crime was serious as the crime occurred several times over two years, and that he did not seriously reflect on the crime.”

Attorney Jang Eun-min of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. B, said, "Mr. B's response may have been insufficient in the relationship as he was the victim of several sexual crimes by Mr. A, whom he had known for a long time, but the main parts of the statement were consistent and there were no contradictions. Since Mr. A was Mr. B's boss, he had no choice but to maintain a close relationship to make a living, and we were able to prove the credibility of the statement by proving the specific and overall context, such as the situation in which he asked for forgiveness after committing the crime."

Busan reporter Jeong Cheol-wook

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A man in his 50s committed adultery with a junior colleague at work who fell asleep after taking sleeping pills... Sentenced to prison after appeal of not guilty (link)