The Anyang Manan Police Station. [Provided by Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency]
The Anyang Manan Police Station. [Provided by Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency]

Two male high school students referred to prosecutors on rape charges entered college this year without receiving any disciplinary action from their school, a fact that has only recently come to light and stirs controversy.

According to the Anyang Manan Police Station in Gyeonggi Province, police in January referred the two teenagers, identified only as A and B, to the Anyang branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office without detention on charges including aggravated rape and aggravated quasi-rape under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes.

The two are accused of raping a female classmate, identified as C, at a music rehearsal studio in Anyang in May last year and filming the assault.

Police determined the charges were substantiated based on the victim's testimony, closed-circuit television footage and analysis of items seized from the suspects, including their mobile phones.

Photos of multiple women were found on A's phone, and some images showed signs of having been deleted.

Police conducted the investigation without detaining the suspects, citing conflicting statements from the suspects and the victim as well as the suspects' ages.

A and B are denying the charges. After the incident was reported as a case of school violence, they graduated without receiving any disciplinary measures.

The school violence deliberation committee delayed its decision on disciplinary action, and by the time the two students graduated, the local education support office closed the case on the grounds that it could not take action against students who had already graduated.

Prosecutors, who received the case from police, are continuing their investigation.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com