Sexual Assault Attorney | Defending a Middle School Student Charged with Sexual Assault to Obtain Non-Prosecution

If 🔗rape is established, it is punishable under the Criminal Act by imprisonment for a definite term of 3 years or more.

However, because the victim in the client's case was a youth under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse, Article 7 of that Act applied, and the offense was punishable by life imprisonment or imprisonment for 5 years or more.

In the case of those aged 10 to 13, they are classified as juveniles subject to protection (chokbeop sonyeon) and, even if they commit a criminal offense, a protective disposition is imposed without criminal punishment.

However, youths aged 14 or older are classified as juvenile offenders, and if they have committed a serious offense, they may be subject to criminal punishment through the same procedures as adults.

The client's child of the sexual assault lawyer was 15 years old and fell within the category of a juvenile offender, placing the child in a situation where punishment was difficult to avoid.

The client's child and the victim, who came to the sexual assault attorney, had been engaging in physical contact such as kissing and touching each other's genitals from before the incident.

On the day of the incident as well, while engaging in physical contact, the victim first removed her clothes and told the client's child to take off his clothes too.

They thereupon had sexual relations naturally, and even after the relations and after parting they maintained an ordinary relationship, talking on the phone and exchanging messages.

Citing this point, the sexual assault attorney emphasized that the client's child had sexual relations with the victim's consent.

The sexual assault attorney with relevant experience recovered the contents of the KakaoTalk messages exchanged between the client's child and the victim after their sexual relations, in collaboration with the digital forensics center.

After the sexual relations, the client's child asked whether the victim had disliked the sexual relations, and the victim answered that there had never been a time she disliked it.

Moreover, a week later the victim invited the child to her home, saying she would be home alone.

The sexual assault attorney with relevant experience cited this point to emphasize once again that the sexual relations between the client's child and the victim had been by agreement.

According to Supreme Court Decision 2019Do6546, July 25, 2019, where the defendant has consistently denied the charged facts and the victim's statement is the only direct evidence supporting the charged facts, in order to find the defendant guilty on that basis, the victim's statement must be such that there is no room for reasonable doubt in light of the rationality and validity of the content of the statement itself, its objective accuracy, the rules of experience, and the like.

It must also have credibility sufficient to reject the defendant's claim of innocence.

Based on the analyzed precedent, the sexual assault specialist attorney argued that the charge of sexual assault could not be found against the client.