Five men jailed for gang rape of woman

The Busan High Court on Sunday upheld the appellate ruling on five men in their 20s charged with the aggravated rape of a woman they met through a mobile messaging app.

The top court upheld the conviction of the five men and reaffirmed their sentences of five to eight years in prison, highlighting the necessity of strict punishment to prevent repeat offense.

Along with the prison sentence, the court ordered 120 hours of sexual offender treatment, identities to be revealed for five years and restricted employment at schools and other child care facilities. 

One of the defendants and the woman met through a mobile messaging app in May last year. After having sex, the two went to a local pub in Busan for drinks when his two friends joined shortly after, according to reports.

The three men took the victim, now incapacitated, back to her studio apartment. They called two more friends and the five of them took turns raping her, while filming it with their phones.

The defendants claimed the victim was “clear-headed” at the time and “could have resisted, but didn’t.”

They were convicted under Article 299 of the Criminal Act, of “quasi-rape” -- applicable to cases in which a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person by taking advantage of his or her state of unconsciousness or inability to resist along with other person(s).” The crime is considered equivalent to rape.

The crime was treated as an aggravated offense because more than one man was involved, resulting in a minimum sentence of five years accorting to the special act on the punishment of sex crimes. They were also found guilty of other offenses related to their filming of the crime.

During the course of their investigation, authorities found evidence to suggest that the defendants had frequently taken advantage of women they met via mobile messaging apps, engaged in sexual intercourse and secretly filmed the incident every time.

By Catherine Chung (cec82@heraldcorp.com)