By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A provincial court for the first time found a man in his 20s guilty of ``raping'' a transexual, Wednesday, challenging the current law that defines rape to when a man has forcible sex with a woman born a female. The victim's legal gender still remains man.

The Busan District Court sentenced the man to three years in prison suspended for four years on charges of raping the 59-year-old transsexual. He was also ordered to participate in 120 hours of community service.

Judge Ko Jong-joo said in the ruling, ``The victim has acted like woman since he was born. In 1974, when he turned 24, he underwent a gender reassignment program. He once also lived with a male partner for a decade. Given all of these, he can be seen as female.''

The judge added that although the victim was legally a man, but this did not take into account his sexual identity. ``Thus, his sex in legal documents cannot be seen as his `ultimate' gender,'' he said.

The rapist invaded the victim's home last August and raped her using a blunt weapon. The prosecution initially indicted the man on a ``molestation'' charge but changed it to ``rape'' later after considering the victim's personal history. It sought a five-year prison term, Feb. 11.

Giving the unprecedented ruling, the judge set three criteria to define the precedent ― whether the victim had sex change surgery; how long he/she has lived with appearance of the opposite sex; and if he/she has no problems having sexual relations.

In a similar case in 1996, the Supreme Court did not acknowledge rape charge, citing the victim's sexual chromosome identity as a male.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr