SEOUL: A South Korean court docket sentenced a person to 40 years in jail on Tuesday (Feb 7) for murdering a lady he had stalked for years, in a high-profile case that prompted requires authorized reform.
Seoul’s Central District Court docket discovered 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan responsible of killing a former colleague in revenge after the sufferer reported him to the police for stalking.
Over virtually two years, Jeon adopted and threatened the lady on greater than 300 separate events however he was by no means detained regardless of her submitting repeated complaints, as police deemed him “low danger”.
On Sep 14 final 12 months, a day earlier than Jeon was as a consequence of be sentenced for stalking the lady, he stabbed her to demise in a public restroom at a subway station in central Seoul, the court docket discovered.
“From the defendant’s testimony it appeared he was decided to homicide the sufferer except she agreed to settle” the stalking cost, the court docket mentioned in its verdict, based on Yonhap Information Company.
“Regardless of the sufferer’s want to minimize ties, the defendant compelled her to endure stalking and dedicated a revenge crime … as an alternative of reflecting on his misdeeds.”
The killing prompted South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, the nation’s former high prosecutor, to name on the justice ministry to enhance legal guidelines on stalking to “higher defend the victims and guarantee such crimes will not occur once more”.
Prosecutors within the case had referred to as for the demise penalty, arguing that Jeon might “doubtless commit excessive crimes like homicide sooner or later as a consequence of his egocentrism when he feels anger in opposition to others”, the JoongAng Each day newspaper reported.
However the court docket dominated the defendant’s younger age meant he might nonetheless replicate and atone for his crimes.
In his remaining court docket testimony, Jeon apologised to the sufferer’s household “for inflicting them a lot ache”.
The failure to take Jeon into custody after the sufferer’s repeated complaints sparked widespread shock and alarm in South Korea and prompted enraged calls for for officers to take care of such instances extra strictly.
Jeon reportedly advised investigators he had been angered by the authorized issues his sufferer had brought on him. He had been fired from his job on the Seoul Metro – the place the lady additionally labored – after she first reported him for stalking.
Jeon was already in jail earlier than being handed his homicide sentence on Tuesday, having earlier been handed 9 years for the stalking. The sentences can be served consecutively.
This text was initially revealed by channelnewsasia.com. Learn the unique article right here.
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