By Kim Da-hee
A taxi driver who raped a drunken foreign woman was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail, suspended for four years, at his second trial, Seoul High Court said Tuesday.
The taxi driver, surnamed Kim, 51, was sentenced to three years in prison and 40 hours in a sexual violence treatment program at his first trial on suspicion of raping a Thai woman in her 20s last year.
Last September, Kim picked up the woman in front of a club in Seocho-gu, Seoul, the court was told. As Kim found her drunk, he took her to a nearby motel and sexually assaulted her.
“(The justice) recognized the sentence of the first trial was made in light of the fact that the victim was deeply traumatized and sexually ashamed by the incident,” the judge in the second trial said. “The second trial, however, changed the sentence by suspending it for four years on the basis that the victim had agreed with the criminal not to punish him.”
Kim also was ordered to complete 120 hours of community service and 80 hours of a sexual violence treatment program.