Sex offender released early from prison without victim’s knowledge
Published: 17 Aug. 2025, 13:11
Updated: 17 Aug. 2025, 20:00
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[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]
“I had stopped taking psychiatric medication and was ready to let go of my self-defense tools — I couldn’t believe the offender had already been released without my knowledge,” said a woman in her 30s from Busan.
The woman was sexually assaulted in July 2021 by a man in his 70s while on her way home, Yonhap News Agency reported Saturday. After filing a police report and enduring a year and five months of legal proceedings, a court sentenced the man to five years in prison and ordered him to complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment.
Following the criminal trial, the woman also won a civil suit and began receiving damages by seizing the offender’s prison savings. But when she called the correctional facility in April, as she routinely did, she was only told that the man had been transferred to a different prison — with no further details provided due to "privacy reasons."
Eventually, through her own inquiries, she discovered that the man had already been released on medical grounds. By the time she learned this, it was July — three months after his release.
Under current laws, including the Criminal Procedure Act and the Crime Victim Protection Act, prosecutors are required to promptly inform victims or their legal representatives of changes to a perpetrator’s custody status — including release — if requested. In this case, the woman received no such notification.
“If the offender had malicious intent and came looking for me, I would have had no way to defend myself,” she said. “I had stopped taking medication and was recovering, but the panic attacks have returned and I’m back in treatment.”
Prosecutors attributed the oversight to human error.
“The department handling sentence suspension notified the victim support officer of the release, but a mistake occurred during the relay of that information," said a spokesperson for the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office.
The office added that a new automatic notification system for major criminal procedures was introduced in April, but the integration process is still underway.
“We will work with relevant agencies to expand automatic notifications to cover the entire criminal procedure,” the office said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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