Court rejects deaf students' compensation claims

Scenes from "Silenced"

A court has thrown out a damages lawsuit brought against the government by deaf students who claim they were repeatedly raped and abused at a special institution.

The students’ story was told in the 2011 movie based upon the book “The Crucible” (also titled “Silenced”) which sparked public attention and legislative reform with the “Dogani Bill” - named after the film’s Korean title.

Seven Gwangju Inhwa School students sued the central government as well as the city of Gwangju, for causing trauma and depression starting from 2011. The trauma was caused by a series of sexual violence incidents that took place in the school.

The lawsuit over the trauma is separate from that over the assaults, which saw the perpetrators pay penalties to some of the victims.

The Seoul Central District Court rejected the students’ demand for government compensation, saying the statute of limitations had expired and that there a lack of evidence.

"The plaintiff's right to demand national compensation was valid from June, 2005. However, the injury lawsuit comes way past the statute of limitation, which is five years," said Kan In-chul, chief prosecuting attorney of Seoul Central Civil Court 10th division, "This is why it is difficult to accept the plaintiffs' requests."

The lawsuit, filed in 2012, claimed the students had suffered trauma and mental anguish.

The court ruled that the case was the virtually the same as the previous lawsuit, filed in 2009.

The statute of limitations relevant to the first case expired in 2010.

An attorney defending the seven victims said, "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy fight. The state did not act in ways it should have acted before, so who are we to blame now?"