SEOUL, March 10 (Bernama) — South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday declared a war against sex offenders, amid a nationwide manhunt for the suspect in the brutal rape and murder of a teenage girl in Busan last week, Yonhap news agency reports.
Prosecutors decided to take extraordinarily tough measures against sex crimes on children, in particular, seeking an imprisonment of at least 10 years for them and strengthening electronic monitoring of all previously convicted of sex offences.
The decision was reached at a video conference of some 60 senior prosecutors nationwide, who also discussed ways to prevent sex crimes against children and alienate high-risk sex offenders from society, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) said.
Under the current law, anybody indicted for sexual assault on children or more than two rapes of women before September 2008 is forced to wear an electronic anklet 24 hours a day for up to 10 years.
Prosecutors decided to push to revise the law to subject all sex offenders indicted before September 2008 to the 24-hour electronic monitoring, the SPO said.
The prosecution’s move came as the grisly murder of the 13-year-old Busan girl has freshly aroused public anger over the country’s lenient punishment for sex crimes. Nearly two weeks after she went missing, her body, stripped of all clothes, was discovered in a water tank close to her home in the southern port city.
“In light of the girl’s case, we reaffirmed our principle to thoroughly investigate and prevent sex crimes involving children,” the office said in a release.
“We will mobilize every possible measure to alienate sex criminals as much as possible from society in the future.”
Police have designated a 33-year-old man, named Kim Kil-tae, as the suspect after his body hair was found on the girl’s body.
Kim, who had previously spent a total of 11 years behind bars after being convicted of several rapes, was not ordered to wear the electronic anklet upon his latest release last June because his indictment occurred before September 2008.
The electronic device alerts law enforcement officials when the offenders violate their curfew or enter prohibited areas like school zones or the home of a prior victim.
With growing concerns for loopholes in sex offender laws, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) called for prompt legislation to allow retroactive punishment for repetitive criminals preying on children.
“To retroactively apply the ‘electronic anklet law,’ we need to revise the law,” Rep. Ahn Sang-soo, GNP’s floor leader, said in a parliamentary meeting.
“We urge the National Assembly to hold a judicial committee to speed up review and pass the law on the child sex crime.”
According to the National Police Agency, 1,017 sex crimes against children under the age of 12 occurred last year, resulting in three cases a day on average.
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