Defense Against Rape Causing Injury | Case of Non-Referral After Responding to a Wrongful Charge of Rape Causing Injury

Rape causing injury is an offense committed when a person who has committed rape injures another person or causes injury to them.

Rape is the offense of raping a person by assault or intimidation, and if injury is inflicted in this course, the offense of rape causing injury is committed.

Here, “causing injury” means that there was no intent to cause injury, but injury was inflicted in the course of committing the crime.

Rape causing injury is punished more heavily than an ordinary rape offense.

Under the Criminal Act, a person who has committed the crime of raping another by assault or intimidation and injures that person or causes injury to them may be punished by life imprisonment or imprisonment for at least five years.

The attorney who took on the client's defense argued that the complainant was continually acting to harm the client, which is difficult to regard as the typical attitude of a sexual assault victim.

The client and the complainant are a couple who had broken up.

Right after the breakup, the complainant contacted people around the client to try to elicit statements to the effect that the client had a violent disposition, or spread malicious remarks to the effect that he routinely gossiped about others.

The attorney who took on the client's defense submitted, as evidence, text messages between the complainant and acquaintances.

Those text messages were full of content such as, ‘I actually used to date the client, and he occasionally showed a violent disposition. He says bad things about you, too.. It seems serious enough to amount to defamation. He does not seem like a good person, so I am reaching out to tell you to be careful.’

The attorney who took on the client's defense emphasized that this was by no means true and was a malicious act aimed at a false complaint.

The attorney who took on the client's defense argued that the complainant's false complaint was an act of retaliation for the client's notice of breakup.

When the client, unable to endure the complainant's obsession and control, gave notice of the breakup, the complainant clung to him and demanded that they get back together.

When the client firmly refused, she abruptly sent a message reading, ‘You know I am a bit crazy. It has to be you. If I cannot have you, no one can.’

The complainant then sent the message above to people around the client several times.

When acquaintances who knew the client well said, ‘The client is not that kind of person. Are you not mistaken?’ the complainant eventually stated that she had been raped, which led to the false complaint.

In addition, the photo of the bruise on the wrist that the complainant claimed as an injury turned out to have been taken one week after the incident.

The attorney who took on the client's defense raised doubts about its credibility, saying, ‘If she had been injured on the day of the incident, she would have photographed it as evidence right away.’

Sex crime cases, including rape causing injury, often lack direct evidence by their nature, so investigative agencies frequently reach a determination by considering the statements of those involved along with the surrounding circumstances.

In this process, securing objective materials and a legally precise response are required so that the case is not interpreted in a way that differs from the facts.

Also, because the course of a case can change significantly depending on how it is handled in the early stages of the investigation, a strategic approach is needed from the investigation stage onward.

Drawing on its experience in sex crime cases, Daeryun Law Firm offers practical response measures suited to the client's situation, from the initial consultation through the investigation response and the subsequent procedures.

If you are in a situation that requires an investigation or a response to a charge of rape causing injury, please confirm a response strategy suited to your current situation through a 🔗legal consultation booking with an attorney experienced in sex crimes.

Daeryun, the ninth-largest law firm in Korea (based on 2025 National Tax Service value-added tax filings), provides tailored legal services.