“Move Aside on the Escalator” vs “Two-Row Queue”…30s Assault 16-Year-Old [Seocho-dong Legal Story]

A man in his 30s accused of assaulting a 16-year-old student over an escalator dispute was sentenced to a suspended fine in the appeal trial. The photo is unrelated to the article content. [Image source=Yonhap News]

"Please move aside."

On October 31st last year at 3:30 PM, at an escalator in a subway station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, B (16), who was walking up behind Mr. A (35, male), said this.

Mr. A, who was standing in two lines, did not budge. He irritably said, "Why should I move aside?" and "'Two-line standing' is being enforced. If you want to go faster, why didn't you take the stairs?" When B kept staring, he also said, "Watch your eyes."

The hostile atmosphere escalated into a physical fight. CCTV footage confirmed Mr. A grabbing B and moving toward the ticket gate, as well as pushing and pulling each other. The prosecution indicted Mr. A on charges of 'assault' for actions including removing B's glasses.

During the trial, Mr. A denied the charges, saying, "I never assaulted B." He also argued that "even if I did assault him, it was in 'self-defense'." He claimed that B hit him first and tried to run away, and that he only responded to B's assault. Regarding B's bent glasses, he pleaded, "They were accidentally caught and removed during the scuffle, not intentionally taken off."

On the other hand, B testified in court, "As soon as I got off the escalator, Mr. A turned around and suddenly snatched my glasses with his left hand, which surprised me," and said, "I asked him to give them back, but he refused, so I grabbed his left arm and took back my glasses."

The first trial sentenced Mr. A to a fine of 500,000 won. The court reasoned that "the fact that there was a dispute over escalator passage alone does not justify Mr. A's actions as self-defense."

Mr. A appealed the first trial verdict, but the second trial also upheld the guilty verdict. According to the court on the 14th, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeal Division 2 (Chief Judge Park Nosu) recently stated that it "can acknowledge the fact that Mr. A removed B's glasses and repeatedly grabbed his wrist, assaulting him," and rejected Mr. A's claim of 'self-defense.'

The court added, "In the first trial, B gave specific and consistent testimony about the circumstances and details of the mutual assault," and "B also testified to unfavorable facts about himself, such as grabbing Mr. A's collar and causing a neck injury, which makes his testimony credible."

Furthermore, the court ruled, "Considering that the fight seems to have started when Mr. A took B's glasses and B tried to retrieve them, and looking at the nature and extent of the mutual assaults, it is reasonable to see Mr. A's assault not as a passive defensive act to escape B's unlawful unilateral attack and protect himself, but rather as an active offensive act against B during the fight."

However, the court accepted Mr. A's argument that "the sentence is too harsh" and suspended the execution of the fine for one year. The court stated, "Although the nature of the crime is unfavorable and there was no settlement with B," it also considered that Mr. A is a first-time offender with no prior record, the crime was committed impulsively during a dispute over escalator passage, and the degree of assault was not severe."

Meanwhile, Mr. A has filed an appeal against the second trial verdict, and this case will be subject to the Supreme Court's judgment.

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