20s Sentenced to Prison for Pointing Gun and Assaulting Junior Soldier Out of Boredom

A man in his 20s who, during his service in the Marine Corps, pointed an empty magazine at the muzzle of a subordinate soldier's gun and pulled the trigger or assaulted him without reason was sentenced to prison.

On the 26th, the Criminal Division 4 of Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam announced that it sentenced Mr. A, a man in his 20s who was tried on seven charges including special assault and special intimidation against a military officer performing duties, to 1 year and 6 months in prison.

According to the court, Mr. A, who served in a unit in Gyeongbuk, was indicted on charges of assault and harsh treatment against six subordinate soldiers about 50 times from June 2020 to January 2021.

Changwon District Court, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Se-ryeong Lee

He kicked the ribs of the subordinate soldiers or hit the back of a passing subordinate soldier’s head, and fired an empty magazine gun aimed at the eyes, solar plexus, and forehead from a distance of 5 to 60 cm.

He also squeezed pump-type hand sanitizer into the mouths of subordinate soldiers, saying, “Back in my day, we even ate this.”

While on guard duty at the gatehouse, claiming boredom, he grabbed a subordinate soldier’s bulletproof helmet to immobilize him, forced him to open his mouth, then inserted the muzzle of a gas-firing gun without bullets into the subordinate’s mouth and fired it five times.

He told them to tell a funny story, and when it was not amusing, he made the subordinate hit his head on the bed and hit his buttocks three times with a crutch.

He also said, “Why are you acting like that when you’re grown up? Does it suck to be cursed by a kid?” just because a subordinate laughed during a phone call.

During the trial, Mr. A’s side denied the charges, stating that “it was a joke, but there was no threat, intimidation, or assault.”

The court rejected Mr. A’s claim, stating, “An act that only the person joking enjoys is harassment.”

The court said, “Using his senior soldier status, he committed assault and harsh treatment over a long period, causing considerable mental and physical suffering to the victims,” and added, “Mr. A’s crimes not only caused personal harm to the subordinate soldiers but also lowered military morale and undermined the public’s trust in the military.”

Furthermore, the court explained the sentencing reason, saying, “Some victims have suffered to the extent of receiving psychiatric treatment after this incident, yet the defendant has neither properly apologized nor made efforts to restore the damage, making a prison sentence unavoidable.”

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