'Told to protect people with disabilities, yet sexually molested a resident'... Facility director sentenced to prison

【Financial News, Jeongeup = Kang In】 The director of a residential care facility has been sentenced to prison for forcibly sexually assaulting a female resident with a developmental disability.
The Jeonju Division of the Gwangju High Court on the 28th overturned the lower court’s five-year prison sentence and sentenced A (46) to two years and six months in prison in an appeal trial. A had been indicted on charges including violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.
The orders requiring A to complete a 40-hour sexual violence treatment program and barring A from working for 10 years at institutions related to children, adolescents, and people with disabilities were upheld as in the original ruling.
A, the director of a residential care facility for people with disabilities, was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a female resident with a developmental disability in May 2025.
The first-instance court found that “although the defendant was in a position of responsibility for protecting the victim as the head of a facility for people with disabilities, the defendant abused that position and sexually assaulted a victim who had difficulty exercising her right to sexual self-determination, making the crime particularly grave.” It sentenced A to five years in prison and ordered A taken into custody in court.
The appellate court said that “the defendant’s culpability is serious, given that the defendant exploited the victim’s circumstances and the defendant’s own position to satisfy wrongful sexual desires and betrayed a moral duty.” However, it cited as grounds for reducing the sentence that “the defendant belatedly admitted to the crime and expressed remorse, reached a settlement with the victim, and the victim does not want the defendant punished,” finding the original sentence too severe and unjustified.
Meanwhile, North Jeolla State and Jeongeup City closed the facility after the case came to light.


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