This image is not directly related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
This image is not directly related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

A prosecutor has uncovered evidence of rape in a case that police had forwarded as a simple prostitution matter, after conducting forensic analysis of a vehicle dashcam.

The Prosecutors' Office announced Friday that Kim Eon-young, a prosecutor at the Gangneung branch of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office, and six colleagues had been selected as outstanding forensic case practitioners for the third quarter of this year.

Kim found that police had declined to refer a rape charge against a suspect identified only as A — who was accused of raping a teenage victim in December last year — and had instead treated the case as simple prostitution. Kim also confirmed that police had seized a dashcam memory chip from A's vehicle but forwarded the case without taking any further action on it.

Kim requested forensic analysis of the dashcam footage from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and the review yielded 636 new pieces of digital evidence — including video showing A threatening the victim with a weapon, forcing the victim to drink alcohol, and taking the victim by force to a motel.

Kim also conducted a search and seizure of A's home, where examination of a mobile phone and tablet computer revealed records of child and youth pornography consumption as well as additional evidence of prostitution.

On the basis of this evidence, Kim determined that A had committed a premeditated crime to satisfy sexual urges, and in July had A indicted and detained on charges of rape causing bodily injury under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth from Sexual Abuse.


betterj@heraldcorp.com