"'Bodily Fluid Attacks' Also Constitute Indecent Assault," Police Add Charges After Supreme Court Ruling

Teenage boy puts bodily fluids in elementary school teacher's tumbler
Supreme Court ruled a similar case constituted "indecent assault"

A suspect who allegedly broke into a classroom at an elementary school in Seogwipo, Jeju, without permission, put bodily fluids in a female teacher's tumbler, and fled has also been charged with attempted indecent assault and other sex crimes. A Supreme Court precedent from July, which found that a similar bodily-fluid attack constituted indecent assault, appears to have influenced the investigation into this case.

Exterior of Seogwipo Police Station. The Asia Business Daily database.

On November 4, the Seogwipo Police Station said it had added charges of attempted indecent assault and stalking against a teenage boy identified as A, who had been booked on suspicion of trespassing and property damage, and referred the case to the Prosecution Office.

A is suspected of sneaking into a classroom at an elementary school in Seogwipo on the afternoon of April 27, putting bodily fluids in the tumbler of a female teacher identified as B, and fleeing. He is also suspected of entering the classroom where Teacher B was the homeroom teacher on June 5, urinating on a teacher's chair, and fleeing.

After the crime, Teacher B said she had suffered emotional shock and called for the perpetrator to be severely punished. At the time, however, only charges of trespassing and property damage were applied, as there was no clear legal determination on whether putting bodily fluids on an object without directly making physical contact with the victim could be considered the use of force required for a charge of indecent assault.

In July, while the investigation into this case was underway, the Supreme Court ruled that a bodily-fluid attack on a female cafe employee in another region in 2024 constituted indecent assault. The ruling held that the defendant's act of putting bodily fluids in a drink consumed by the employee amounted to the use of force against the victim's will and an act of molestation that violated her sexual freedom.

The court also explained that contact had occurred because bodily fluids with strong sexual connotations had entered the victim's body, and that, taken together, the act constituted indecent assault.

A police official said, "In this Jeju case, we applied sex crime charges because we determined that force had been used for the purposes of indecent assault: the suspect deliberately put bodily fluids in the tumbler, which the victim could have drunk from." The official added, "However, because the bodily fluids did not come into contact with the victim's body, we determined that the indecent assault remained an attempt."

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