By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Could a woman whose jeans were found neatly folded by a bed have been the victim of attempted rape?
A dispute is rising over a court ruling saying she could not have been since it is difficult for denims to be taken off by someone other than the wearer.

Outraged women's rights groups criticized the sentence as reflecting the prevalent chauvinism in society and that rape or sexual assault should never be taken lightly or glossed over.

The Seoul High Court Tuesday overturned a lower court's ruling to put a seven-year-jail term on a 35-year-old man on charges of attempted rape and assault that caused injuries requiring 20 weeks of medical care.

The incident took place in 2006 when the victim waited for a friend in a motel reception area while her friend checked-in with a man she'd met at a nightclub. After the friend turned the man down, he grabbed the victim instead and allegedly tried to rape her. She then jumped from the sixth-floor-room window to escape his attempts to rape her.

In his defense the man claimed the woman was drunk, undressed herself and lured him in but ran away at the last minute.

The judge said in the ruling: ``Lots of things point to the accused attempting the rape. But a pair of skinny jeans and underwear found by the bedside neatly folded and the fact that such denims are hard for another person to take off beg clearer evidence to prove him guilty.'' He also said the woman having a medical record of depression should be taken into account.

According to the lower court ruling, however, the victim made coherent statements about her experience and left no grounds for doubt.

A judge at the court said on condition of anonymity that the higher court's ruling is difficult to accept. ``This is a typical sexual assault case. Regardless of past medical records, what comes first is the victim's coherent statement,'' he said.

Lee San of the Korea Sexual violence Relief Center said the ruling is quite irrational. ``Depression may make one dramatize their impression of an incident but it never distorts facts,'' she said. ``Also, skinny jeans may not be easy to take off, but that doesn't mean a man cannot take them off by force,'' she added.

The Online world was also abuzz over the ruling. A male internet user (ID: Kang Jeonggil) said the woman could easily have been forced to take off her jeans.
``In such a violent situation, she may have had to do it by herself. Jumping from such a height shows she was desperate and the court must have misread or ignored that,'' he said.

``Now women cannot wear jeans?'' an angry netizen (ID:antechinus) said.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr