By Kim Rahn
A local court has sentenced an ex-professor to 12 years in prison for abusing a student, including beating him and forcing him to eat human excrement.
The sentence was heavier than the 10 years and four months recommended by the Supreme Court’s sentencing guidelines for such charges. It was also heavier than the prosecution’s initial request for 10 years.
The Suwon District Court on Thursday handed down the prison sentence to the ex-professor, surnamed Jang, 52, formerly of Kangnam University in Gyeonggi Province, on charges of violence.
Three other students who studied with Jang were also given between three and six years in jail for assisting Jang in the abuse.
“They were cruel beyond imagination and violated the victim’s human dignity,” the court said in the ruling.
Jang “tortured” the student, Jeon, 29, for years simply because he did not like him.
From March 2013 to May of this year, Jang and the three students beat the victim with a baseball bat dozens of times and sprayed him with pepper-spray, which burned part of his face.
They also collected excrement and forced Jeon to eat it. They had watched such abusive acts live through online video chat rooms.
“While beating Jeon, Jang bent an aluminum pipe, so he then hit him with a baseball bat and sprayed him with pepper-spray and kept on abusing him,” the court said, adding that Jeon tried to kill himself following the abuse.
“The pepper-spray was so painful, that when Jang asked the victim to choose between being sprayed in his face with it, or eat excrement, he chose the latter,” the court said. “Jang’s acts were against the minimum decency of a human, so severe punishment is in order.”
Jeon, who studied under Jang and worked at his office, said he put up with the abuse because he needed Jang’s evaluation to get a job as a professor.
Jang’s assistants also threatened Jeon, saying that he should pay them “compensation” for financial damages he did not make. They also said they would cut his Achilles tendon if he tried to run away.