Choi Yun-jong, the suspect behind the rape and murder of a woman in Seoul’s Sillim district, speaks to reporters at the Seoul Gwanak Police Station in this file photo taken Aug. 25, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – The suspect in last month’s attempted rape and killing of a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul has told investigators that he took his cue from a similar case last year in which a man kicked a woman unconscious for a suspected rape attempt in the southeastern city of Busan, according to prosecutors.
Such details were revealed as prosecutors indicted the 30-year-old suspect, Choi Yun-jong, on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in Seoul’s southern district of Sillim on Aug. 17.
The victim, an elementary school teacher in her 30s, had been left unaided for around 20 minutes before being found by the police and moved to a hospital. She died two days later due to brain damage caused by the strangulation.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office charged Choi Yun-jong with murder combined with rape although the office concluded Choi’s rape attempt was unsuccessful.
Under the current law on sexual crimes, the charge of murder combined with rape can be raised in the event of a victim’s death regardless of whether the rape attempt was successful or not.
Investigations indicated Choi used brass knuckles on both hands when assaulting her.
An analysis of Choi’s mobile phone and internet history showed he was a loner, living reclusively without much contact with people outside his family.
Choi told prosecutors that he took his cue from the widely reported assault and attempted rape case in Busan last year for his crime. A 30-something man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for assaulting a random woman in her 20s with a reverse spin kick in the lobby of a residential building in Busan in May last year.
Under the current law, rape combined with murder is punishable by death or life imprisonment at the maximum.
(Yonhap)
