[Seocho-dong Legal Talk] Secondary Sexual Assault Victimization... The Outcome of the National Team Coach Case

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] From the investigation stage to the courtroom, he denied the sexual assault charges, but changed his strategy starting from the second trial. He reversed his statement, claiming that he had reached an agreement with the victim and had consensual sexual relations. He also questioned the credibility of the evidence, saying the victim's testimony became more detailed over time. However, he was ultimately sentenced to 13 years in prison, an increase from the 10 years initially handed down in the first trial.

Former short track national team coach Jo Jae-beom, who was tried on charges of sexually assaulting his student, short track skater Shim Seok-hee, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Although Shim was embroiled in controversy in February 2018 during the Pyeongchang Olympics over allegations of deliberately colliding with a teammate in a short track event, this did not affect the verdict against former coach Jo.

Jo was prosecuted for sexually assaulting, forcibly molesting, and threatening Shim 29 times between 2014 and 2017. Some of the offenses occurred while Shim was a minor, leading the prosecution to apply charges under the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles Against Sexual Abuse.

The first trial court found Shim’s testimony, based on her training logs, credible and sentenced Jo to 10 years and 6 months in prison. The court pointed out, "The defendant committed crimes over several years while psychologically controlling the victim by strictly enforcing training methods within the hierarchical relationship between coach and athlete and frequently monitoring the victim’s status."

The prosecution demanded 20 years in prison during the appeal. They argued, "The defendant exercised various forms of violence and rendered the victim helpless from when she was an elementary school student, exploiting the victim’s focus on training solely for the Olympics to commit sexual crimes over a long period, warranting severe punishment."

They also added, "The defendant denied all charges in the first trial but changed his stance in the appeal, claiming consensual relations, which caused secondary harm to the victim."

The court accepted this. The appellate court stated, "The victim’s new testimony, supported by training logs and text messages, cannot be seen as a mere reversal of previous statements." The sentence was increased. Despite the defendant’s claim of consensual relations, the victim strongly denied it, and the defendant failed to submit any additional evidence. The court concluded, "Jo’s claim can only be seen as causing secondary harm to the victim," and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

There was some controversy before the Supreme Court ruling. After KakaoTalk messages in which Shim disparaged her teammates were revealed, some argued that the facts of Jo’s case should be reexamined.

However, on the 10th, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s ruling at the hearing for Jo’s final appeal, confirming the 13-year prison sentence, 200 hours of sexual violence treatment program, and a 7-year ban on employment at child, youth, and disabled welfare facilities. The Supreme Court stated, "Considering the defendant’s age, character, environment, relationship with the victim, motive, means and results of the crime, and circumstances after the crime, the appellate court’s sentence of 13 years in prison is not excessively unjust."

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