Supreme Court: "False Accusation of Sexual Assault Cannot Be Established Without False Evidence"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that an acquittal on charges of sexual assault should not automatically be taken as proof of false accusation.

On the 17th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Sanghwan) overturned the lower court's ruling that sentenced a man in his 30s, graduate student A, to one year in prison on charges of false accusation, and remanded the case to the Daejeon District Court.

A accused Professor B, his doctoral advisor, of raping and sexually assaulting him 14 times between December 2014 and May 2016, abusing his position as his supervisor.

However, A failed to provide consistent testimony, including changing the dates of the alleged incidents. While he initially claimed that B forcibly sexually assaulted him, he later altered his statement after text messages exchanged between the two around the time of the alleged incidents showed a friendly relationship.

Ultimately, the prosecution decided not to indict B due to insufficient evidence to prove the sexual assault.

In response, B filed a false accusation suit against A, claiming they had an extramarital affair. B argued that A falsely accused him to hide the affair after B's wife filed a damages lawsuit against A.

The first trial court found A guilty of false accusation and sentenced him to eight months in prison with a two-year probation. The court found B's claim?that their relationship developed into an affair after consensual sexual relations?more credible based on text messages and witness testimonies.

The second trial court increased the sentence to one year in prison, stating that there was no evidence of coercion or oppression in the relationship between A and B.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts had misapplied the law regarding false accusation and sent the case back to the second trial court. The court held that the inability to confirm the truthfulness of the report does not justify assuming the report was false and punishing it as a false accusation. The court stated, "Even if some parts of the accusation are untrue, if it only amounts to exaggeration of the accusation, the crime of false accusation cannot be established."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.