South Gyeongju 'Student Sexual Assault Allegation' to Proceed with Citizen Participation Trial [Star Scene]

*This content was translated by AI.

The request for a citizen participation trial against musical actor South Gyeongju, accused of sexually assaulting a student, has been accepted.

On the morning of the 26th, the Criminal Consolidated Division No. 29 of Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul (Presiding Judge Eom Gi-pyo (Director)), held the first pre-trial hearing for South Gyeongju, who is accused of sexual intercourse with a subordinate. Defendants are not required to attend pre-trial hearings.

Originally, the case was assigned to a single-judge criminal division (Criminal Division 13), but the court reassigned it to a consolidated panel through a financial agreement procedure. A financial agreement is a process by which the court, considering the seriousness of the case such as when issues are complex, converts a single-judge trial handled by one judge into a consolidated-panel trial handled by three judges.

On this day, South Gyeongju's legal representative stated, "We will express our wish for a citizen participation trial. First, as the victim's attorney mentioned, we fully respect the reasons why the defendant may wish to exclude a citizen participation trial. However, while this case is indeed a sexual assault case, it is not merely a typical coercion or abuse of authority incident; rather, it hinges on whether a supervisory relationship existed between the defendant and the victim. According to the prosecutor's indictment, the victim was a student attending the defendant's class at the time, the defendant proposed offering an assistant teaching position, and the victim was scheduled to take that role. These three factors were framed as establishing a supervisory relationship. However, the victim's academic evaluation had already concluded; whether the defendant could influence grades through the discretion of a private instructor is questionable; the appointment of an assistant teacher is not solely at the instructor's discretion but depends on the student's will; and the defendant's influence was too vague and abstract. We have doubts about whether the defendant could exert any concrete influence over the victim and what the nature of their positional relationship was, and we plan to focus our arguments on these points. Our focus will be on objectively determining what kind of relationship existed between the defendant and the victim at the time, rather than questions that may induce secondary victimization or shame in sexual assault cases. We believe this is precisely the type of case where societal common sense should be evaluated by the public." The representative raised his voice while speaking.

After a five-minute recess, the trial resumed. Presiding Judge Eom stated, "As a result of our deliberation, although it is true that the citizen participation trial system has structural limitations in fully protecting the victim as the victim's side claims, this trial is one that will affect the defendant for the rest of his life. Therefore, we have accepted the defense team's opinion and decided to proceed with the case under the citizen participation trial procedure."

Previously, in December last year, South Gyeongju was accused of sexually assaulting student A at an unspecified location in Seocho-gu, Seoul. It is reported that A immediately called 112 following the incident. At the time, South Gyeongju denied the allegations during police investigation, but the police concluded that the allegations were credible and transferred the case to the Prosecution Service. Although South Gyeongju's side requested criminal mediation through the Prosecution Service in an attempt to reach a settlement, it reportedly failed due to the victim's refusal.

Meanwhile, South Gyeongju is a first-generation musical actor who debuted in 1982. Due to the controversy, he ceased all activities after October last year, concluding his performance in the musical "The Show! Silla-Gyeongju." Additionally, his position as an associate professor in the Department of Performing Arts (Musical Major) at Hongik University was terminated in March this year.

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*This content was translated by AI.