Man in his 60s gets 5 years for hugging middle school girl from behind as she headed home... despite plea for leniency: “Too drunk to stay in control”

[Financial News] A man in his 60s who hugged a middle school girl from behind and tried to drag her away as she was heading home was sentenced to five years in prison.
According to legal sources on the 8th, the Jeju District Court’s Criminal Division 2, presided over by Judge Seo Beom-wook, sentenced A, a man in his 60s who had been indicted while in custody on charges including violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses (indecent assault by compulsion), to five years in prison that day.
The court also ordered the disclosure and notification of his personal information for 10 years, barred him from working for 10 years at institutions related to children, youth and people with disabilities, and ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring device (ankle monitor) for 10 years. Prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison sentence.
A is accused of sexually assaulting B, a middle school girl who was on her way home, including by hugging her from behind in the underground parking lot of a villa in Jeju City on the afternoon of May 19, and of attempting to drag her away to assault her, but failing.
B escaped from A and told her parents what had happened. Police responded to the report and made an emergency arrest of A.
A is also accused of stealing 50,000 won in cash on May 17, two days before the offense, and attempting theft on two occasions. Investigators found that A had been released from prison late last year and committed the offenses during the repeat-offender period.
During the trial, A’s lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying, “A has relied on alcohol since his release from prison and was so intoxicated at the time of the offense that he could not control his actions.”
A also stated, “I will live with a sense of remorse toward the victim. When I get out (after serving my sentence), I’ll quit drinking, too.”
The court, however, explained its reasoning for the sentence, saying, “The offenses were serious, and the student victim appears to have been deeply shocked, making an appropriate punishment unavoidable,” and adding, “A also reoffended in the theft cases while in the repeat-offender period for similar crimes, so a substantial punishment is necessary.”
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