Posing as Customers, Teens and Twentysomethings Sentenced to Prison for Robbing Sex Worker

Suwon District Court Sentences Ringleader to 3 Years in Prison
Thai National Sex Worker Assaulted and Robbed of Valuables

A group of individuals in their teens and twenties who committed armed robbery by posing as customers to target a sex worker has been sentenced to prison in the first trial.

According to legal sources and Yonhap News on September 13, the 11th Criminal Division of the Suwon District Court (Chief Judge Song Byung-hoon) sentenced Defendant A to two years and six months in prison and Defendant B to three years in prison on charges including aggravated robbery. Additionally, C, a juvenile, was sentenced to a maximum of two years and six months and a minimum of two years in prison, while another accomplice who played a relatively minor role received two years and six months in prison with a four-year suspended sentence. The court also ordered all of them to complete 160 hours of community service.

Exterior view of Suwon District Court. Photo by Yonhap News

On March 30, at approximately 3 a.m., the group broke into an officetel in Paldal-gu, Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, assaulted a Thai sex worker in her fifties, and stole a mobile phone and other items worth approximately 2 million won. The offenders, who came to know each other through youth shelters, had been moving between inns and motels, and after running out of money, planned the crime to cover their living expenses. They identified the victim through a prostitution website, posed as customers, visited the officetel where she was staying, and carried out the robbery.

Among them, Defendant B received the harshest sentence because he was also charged with attempted blackmail for previously threatening his ex-girlfriend to release sexually explicit videos online in order to extort money. It was found that C, the juvenile, picked up someone else’s ID card to rent a car and drove without a license for over 100 kilometers, stole cash from a convenience store, and committed dozens of crimes such as stealing a graphics card from a computer in a motel.

The court stated, “The defendants planned and executed a robbery against a woman engaged in illegal prostitution by strangling her and taking her belongings, which makes the nature of the crime particularly egregious. In addition, they committed numerous other offenses, such as using another person’s ID for unlicensed driving and blackmailing a former partner using illegal recordings.” However, the court also explained, “Circumstances favorable to the defendants include the victim’s phone being returned, some defendants’ limited involvement in the crime, and the fact that one offender is a juvenile.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.