Sexual Assault Defense Attorney | Acquittal on a Rape Charge Through the Assistance of a Daeryun Sexual Assault Defense Attorney

After a drinking gathering with acquaintances ended, the client who came to the sexual assault defense attorney was left alone with a woman he had met for the first time that day.

As they talked, they felt drawn to each other and kissed. The client, who had a family, felt guilty, pushed the woman away, and left the place first.

The woman, however, said she could not return home and suggested that they go to a motel together.

Once they entered the motel, the woman tried to seduce the client and kissed him again, but the client felt a pang of conscience toward his family, left the woman behind, and walked out of the room.

As it turned out, the woman was a minor, and she went so far as to file a criminal complaint claiming that the client had raped her.

■ The Legal Principles Relevant to the Case, Explained by the Sexual Assault Defense Attorney

▶ Article 297 of the Criminal Act (Rape)

A person who rapes another through violence or intimidation shall be punished by imprisonment for a definite term of at least three years.

◎ In a criminal trial, the burden of proving the charged facts rests with the prosecutor, and a finding of guilt must be based on evidence with probative value sufficient to convince the judge that the charged facts are true beyond a reasonable doubt. Where such evidence is absent, the matter must be decided in the defendant's favor, even if some suspicion of guilt remains (see Supreme Court Decision 2006Do735, Apr. 27, 2006, among others).

◎ Where the defendant has consistently and firmly denied the charged facts and the victim's statement is in effect the only direct evidence supporting the charges, convicting the defendant solely on the basis of the victim's statement requires probative value so high as to leave virtually no room to doubt the truthfulness and accuracy of that statement (see Supreme Court Decision 2011Do16413, May 10, 2012).

◎ In the crime of rape, the violence or intimidation must be of a degree that makes the victim's resistance impossible or markedly difficult, and whether the violence or intimidation reached such a degree must be determined by considering all relevant circumstances, including the content and degree of the violence and intimidation through which physical force was exercised, as well as the background to the use of that force, the relationship with the victim, and the circumstances at the time of the act (see Supreme Court Decision 2000Do1253, Jun. 9, 2000, among others).

The sexual assault defense attorney argued that the victim's statement was inconsistent and therefore lacked credibility.

Whether the victim remembers the incident is an important factor in assessing the credibility of the victim's statement.

The victim, however, gave inconsistent accounts of whether she remembered the incident, including the amount of alcohol she had consumed that day.

The sexual assault defense attorney argued that the woman's statement contradicted the objective evidence.

According to the woman's statement, the client had pulled hard at her clothing while struggling in an attempt to rape her, and she claimed that she had kept the clothes she wore that day.

The investigation, however, found that none of the client's DNA was detected on the clothing the woman submitted.

The Daeryun sexual assault defense attorney accordingly emphasized that the woman's statement did not match this objective evidence.

The sexual assault defense attorney argued that the woman's reaction was not the reaction typically shown by a victim of a sexual crime.

According to the testimony of the people who had been drinking together that day, they no longer involved themselves in the matter because they found the woman's account to be inconsistent.

In addition, when the people connected to the case said they would appear in court as witnesses on the woman's behalf, she did not show gratitude but instead became angry, behaving in a way that was difficult to understand.

The Daeryun sexual assault defense attorney accordingly argued that, even allowing for the fact that victims of sexual crimes may react in varied ways, the woman's conduct was difficult to regard as a typical reaction.

The client who came to the sexual assault defense attorney was accused of raping a minor and committing attempted rape, and needed to defend against the charges.

The Daeryun sexual assault defense attorney accordingly made every effort to assist with the overall litigation process, from the police investigation stage through legal consultation and the gathering of evidence.

As a result, the client, who had faced the risk of an actual custodial sentence of at least three years, was able to receive an acquittal from the court.

This outcome was possible because the assistance of the sexual assault defense attorney helped avoid the application of the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse.

If you are struggling in a situation similar to that of the client above, you may come to a sexual assault defense attorney at Daeryun Law Firm at any time.