By Lee Hyo-sik
A 31-year-old middle school teacher was caught secretly filming the legs and other body parts of his female students and fellow teachers at the school, the prosecution said Friday.
According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, investigators detained the male teacher, who taught English for five years in a middle school in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and indicted him on charges of breaking the special law designed to punish sex offenders.
The prosecution said the teacher, identified only as Ahn, also videotaped the legs and other sensitive body parts of female commuters on subway trains and elevators from April 2009 to October 2011.
“Ahn usually targeted women in revealing clothes, regardless of their age, in public places and taped their body parts with his mobile phone. We confiscated his phone’s memory cards and found that 223 women appeared on 533 clips stored on the cards,” a prosecution official said.
“It was more stunning that the teacher even targeted his students and fellow teachers to satisfy his sexual desires.”
Some of the video clips also revealed that Ahn sexually harassed women sitting next to him in the subway by touching their legs and thighs.
But the prosecution decided not to file the sexual harassment charge against him as the victims must first file a complaint with the law enforcement authorities.
“We found up to 50 women were harassed by Ahn on the subway. But we could not identify them on the clips,” the official said. “Ahn usually videotaped while commuting by subway on weekdays. But on weekends, the teacher went to book stores and other places where many people congregate.”
Investigators are currently questioning him about whether he released clips on the Internet or committed additional crimes. During the interrogation, Ahn said he had tried to stop filming women but could not resist the temptation, according to the prosecution.