A former head of Saekdongwon, a residential care facility for people with severe developmental disabilities in Incheon, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping residents. The court said a heavy sentence was unavoidable because the crimes exploited an imbalance of power against people with disabilities, who are among society's most vulnerable.
The Seoul Central District Court's 29th criminal division, presided over by Chief Judge Eom Ki-pyo, handed down the 15-year sentence on the 2nd to the man, surnamed Kim, who had been indicted on charges including violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, specifically rape resulting in bodily injury. The court also barred Kim from working at institutions serving children and adolescents and at institutions serving people with disabilities for 10 years each, and ordered three years of probation. It rejected prosecutors' request for an electronic tracking device. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term at the final hearing in July.
Kim was indicted in March on charges of raping three residents and assaulting one resident at Saekdongwon, located in Ganghwa County, Incheon.
During the trial, Kim admitted to the assault charge but flatly denied the rape charges. The court, however, found the victims' testimony credible and convicted him on most of the charges. Even if questions arose over peripheral statements because the victims had limited ability to express themselves and to comprehend, the court said that did not undermine the credibility of their consistent core accounts of the abuse. The court also cited detailed descriptions of the locations and circumstances of the crimes, including sounds and lighting, as well as non-verbal expressions such as gestures and facial expressions. Movements between residential units, staff attendance records and medical opinions also supported the victims' statements, the court said.
The court did, however, dismiss on the merits a charge of raping a person with a disability under one's protection in the case of one victim. While it found that victim's testimony credible, it said the acts described in the indictment alone did not meet the requirement of assault or intimidation for the purpose of sexual intercourse. For those acts, the court convicted Kim only of sexual violence under the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities.
The court rejected the request for an electronic tracking device, saying the prison term, probation, completion of a sex offender treatment program and the employment ban could be expected to deter reoffending to some degree.
The court condemned Kim as highly blameworthy for repeatedly committing crimes against victims who were under his care. "As an employee of a welfare facility for people with disabilities and a person legally obligated to report child abuse, he knew that people with disabilities, as members of a vulnerable group, needed greater protection," the court said. "He exploited an imbalance of power to use as a means of satisfying his own sexual desires victims who lacked the ability to recognize, resist or respond to sexual crimes." The court said it also weighed in sentencing the severe physical and psychological suffering of the victims and the considerable time their recovery appears likely to require.
