40s Man Attempted Sexual Assault 15 Years Ago Faces Trial After DNA Analysis

A man in his 40s who attempted to sexually assault a woman by unlawfully entering her home was caught on theft charges at a construction site and has been brought to trial for the first time in 15 years.

Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office.

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According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Women and Children Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Gumiok) announced that they had arrested and indicted Mr. Lee the day before on charges including home invasion rape under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act.

According to the prosecution, Mr. Lee is accused of entering a house with an open front door in a residential area of Jungnang-gu, Seoul, in September 2008, and attempting to sexually assault a woman in her 20s who was sleeping. The attempt failed as the victim strongly resisted, and Mr. Lee fled during the crime attempt. The case remained unsolved for 15 years.

However, the truth of the case from 15 years ago was revealed when Mr. Lee was sentenced to 8 months in prison with a 2-year probation for nighttime trespassing theft and attempted nighttime trespassing theft at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch in April this year.

To prepare for the execution of the sentence, the prosecution cross-checked Mr. Lee's DNA with the suspect DNA from the sexual crime case 15 years ago and confirmed that Mr. Lee was the true perpetrator. During the prosecution investigation, Mr. Lee admitted to the charges, stating, "I committed the crime impulsively while intoxicated."

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the National Forensic Service have been storing DNA from convicted persons, detained suspects, or DNA collected at crime scenes in a database since the enactment of the 'DNA Act' (Act on the Use and Protection of DNA Identification Information) in 2010, using it to identify perpetrators of unsolved cases.

A prosecution official said, "We will continue to utilize the DNA database to thoroughly pursue violent crimes such as sexual offenses and do our best in investigation and prosecution to ensure that appropriate sentences are imposed, while also doing our utmost to support victims."

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