Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dodge7]

http://news.yahoo.com/us-gi-skorea-gets-10-years-prison-rape-043537345.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) � A South Korean court sentenced a U.S. soldier to 10 years in prison Tuesday for raping a teenage girl � the second harshest punishment handed down to a convicted American soldier here in nearly 20 years.

Uijeongbu District Court convicted 21-year-old Pfc. Kevin Flippin of sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl numerous times after breaking into her small boarding room near Seoul in September, court spokesman Lee Sang-yup said.

Flippin committed many "sadistic and sexually perverted acts" while threatening the girl with a pair of scissors, a knife and a lighter, Lee said. The soldier robbed the girl of 5,000 won ($4.50) as well, he said.

The court verdict said the girl felt "terrified and sexually humiliated," according to Lee.

The case, along with a separate rape allegation by a teenage girl against another U.S. soldier, prompted top U.S. military and government officials to offer public apologies.

"Our sincere apologies go out again to the victim, her family and the Korean community," the 2nd Infantry Division said in a statement later Tuesday.

About a dozen South Korean activists rallied near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, chanting slogans and holding placards, including one that said: "We need Obama's apology!"

The court ordered Flippin to undergo 80 hours of counseling and his personal information to be made public on a South Korean government website for 10 years, Lee said.

Prosecutors had demanded a 15-year prison term. The court, however, decided on a 10-year sentence because Flippin had repented, was still young and the rape was his first crime, Lee said.

Both prosecutors and the soldier have one week to appeal, he said.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, and crimes involving them have fired anti-American sentiments among many South Koreans.

In 2002, the acquittals of two American soldiers whose armored vehicle ran over and killed two South Korean schoolgirls during training prompted massive nationwide protests against the U.S. military presence in the country.

Following the latest rape case, the U.S. military reinstated a curfew for U.S. soldiers and increased joint patrols by U.S. soldiers and South Korean police around U.S. installations in South Korea.

Tuesday's sentencing is the longest prison term for an American soldier stationed in South Korea since 1993, when a U.S. soldier was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a South Korean bar employee, according to the Foreign Ministry. His life sentence was later reduced to 15 years, and the soldier was eventually released in 2006.

[Kepler]

He was arrested a month ago and he's already been sentenced. It sounds like the Korean authorities have been very eager to see this soldier face justice.

"Korean authorities are either so eager to prosecute or so confident of the evidence that are bringing the indictment a week faster than normal....

"One city councilman in Uijeongbu is very upset about the situation. His sign says that US soldiers commit many crimes, that he is so angry he cannot live, and the Status of Forces Agreement should be completely revised. Of course, since Pvt. K was off-duty, SOFA isn�t really relevant here."
http://asiancorrespondent.com/66283/us-soldier-accused-of-raping-korean-teen/

He got ten years? The principal of Inhwa School in Gwangju only got probation for raping a 13 year old deaf student.

[radcon]

Didn't the soldier have the option to just pay the girl some money and have the charges go away as is often the case in Korean jurisprudence?

Is there any Korean man in jail right now serving anywhere near ten years for rape?

[louisfx]

Sounds terrible. How does one get away with this?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[radcon]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[DIsbell]

[Squire]

Nothing to do with this case but I'd like to see US troops leave SK too.

[no_tofu_speed]

10 years for rape is a sufficient term... Korean or American.
Sure the system may have failed previously... and in the past sexual assault has been considered too lightly...
Turning this into a US being treated unfairly vs a Korean being sentenced, just because previously some Koreans have wrongly got a slap on the wrist is bullshit... it is a serious crime.
People should be happy that the sentence is fitting, whether it is US or Korean.
In a western country you would also get a similar sentence.
Punishment for cases like the one in Gwangju, is also bullshit...

[Kuros]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Birder]

All I'm trying to do now is to square this sentence (too brief, in my opinion) with the time a Korean national got for raping an American (female) soldier in Uijeongbu last summer. He was sentenced in the past couple of weeks. He got three and half years. Didn't hear any gnashing of teeth there, though. It seems the court took into consideration that the rapist was "a first time offender, and committed his crime unintentionally after drinking and regrets his wrongdoings." WTF? So, next time he'll get five years if he he was drunk and still didn't really intend to rape? Yet, when the US soldier's attorneys argued for leniency due to the fact that their client was drunk, that didn't seem to resonate so much with the judge. I love Korea, but this is not right. And this is why the SOFA should never have been altered to allow Korean courts to try such cases.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[radcon]