Poet gets eight years' jail for sexually harassing six students
Bae Yong-jae, captured from his SNS
By Chyung Eun-ju
Korean poet Bae Yong-jae was sentenced to eight years’ jail for sexually assaulting six of his students, according to Seoul District Court on Tuesday.
He was also ordered to attend a 200-hour treatment program for sexual offenders.
Bae, 53, regularly sexually harassed underage students while teaching literary creation at a high school in Gyeonggi Province. The scandal was brought to light last year when the victims uploaded posts on Twitter with the hashtag ‘#SexualAbuse_in_Literary’.
“I want to have you during your most beautiful days,” Bae told one student in the school library as he kissed her in March 2013. He ordered her to text her parents that she was studying late and sleeping over at a friend’s house, according to the tweets.
On September 2013, he kissed and touched another student after telling her, “You take my tutoring for granted.”
Last year the poet uploaded a written apology on his personal blog, saying “I have used several sexual words and physically touched my students. I apologize to the students who were hurt.”
He also said, “I am more ashamed of sleeping with some students.”
The court ruling said,“Contrary to sincerely reflecting on his crimes, he tried to avoid punishment by accusing the students of uniting to make him look like a bad person.
“The victims have requested a severe punishment.”
Bae made his debut in 1997 after he won a literary contest hosted by Korean daily DongA Ilbo. He published a collection of poems titled “Tenderness” and “This Sweet Sensation.”
"Tenderness" won an award in 2016.