A Man in His 50s Wearing an Electronic Bracelet Who Took Money from an 8-Year-Old Child Sent Back to Prison

Repeated Violations of Alcohol and Outing Restrictions
Money Snatched from a Girl on the Street

A man in his 50s who served a prison sentence for forcibly molesting children and adolescents and was released while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet was sentenced to prison again after repeatedly violating the conditions of the bracelet. He even approached an 8-year-old girl and took money from her.

On the 17th, Judge Kim Dohyung, Chief Judge of Criminal Division 1 at the Wonju Branch of Chuncheon District Court, announced, “A (53), who was indicted for violating the Act on the Attachment of Electronic Monitoring Devices, theft, and violation of the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (confidentiality, etc.), was sentenced to one year in prison and detained in court.”

A was released on June 27 last year wearing a location-tracking electronic device commonly called an ‘electronic ankle bracelet’ after serving a prison sentence for sexual crimes against children and adolescents.

However, A was brought to trial on charges of violating the restrictions on alcohol consumption and going out six times from October last year to January this year.

A was also charged with failing to notify the police station without justifiable reason after changing his residence on September 28 last year. As a person subject to registration of personal information due to sexual crimes, A is required to submit changes in personal information to the competent police station.

Additionally, on October 17 at 4:02 p.m. of the same year, during the recidivism period for sexual crimes, A approached an 8-year-old girl on a street in Wonju City and took 10,000 won in cash from her hand, which was added to the indictment.

Electronic monitoring bracelet [Image source=Yonhap News]

Judge Kim said, “Despite violating the going-out restrictions 10 times after release and receiving two summary orders, he violated them again and also failed to comply with the additionally imposed alcohol restrictions. It is recognized that he approached a young girl and even stole money during the sexual crime recidivism period.”

He added, “Due to repeated violations of the compliance conditions, the social risk has increased, and it seems difficult to suppress the defendant’s recidivism and promote voluntary compliance awareness only through treatment within society, so a prison sentence is inevitable.”

In South Korea, the first bill to mandate electronic ankle bracelets for specific sex offenders was proposed in the National Assembly in 2005 and has been fully implemented since 2008.

The electronic ankle bracelet consists of an attachment device, a home supervision device, and a location-tracking device equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS). The wearer must always carry this bracelet, allowing the central control center to verify the wearer’s identity and current location.

If the location-tracking device moves beyond a certain distance or the bracelet is cut, an alarm sounds, and this information is transmitted to the control center via the mobile communication network. The information is also sent to the probation office or probation officer supervising the monitored individual, initiating procedures to secure the individual’s whereabouts.

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