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A man in his 60s was handed over to trial on charges of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled person.

However, the court reached an agreement with the victim and sentenced him to probation, saying he was not in good health because he was old.



In this case of sexual violence, reporter Han So-hee points out whether it is right to lower the level of punishment just because one is older.



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A village in Gyeongsangbuk-do in 2019.



A woman in her 60s approached a woman with severe intellectual disability in her 30s who was throwing garbage in front of the senior center, saying, "Let's go pick up a box."



Her Mr. A loaded the victim in her own truck, and climbed up to her nearby hillside, where she sexually assaulted her.



The first trial court sentenced A to three years and six months in prison, saying, "The crime of adultery on a victim with an intellectual disability was heavy and the victim must have suffered considerable physical and mental suffering."



For sexual assault with a disabled person aged 13 or older, the recommended sentence in the sentencing standard was between 6 and 9 years in prison, but the court lowered the sentence on the grounds that Mr.



Last January, the Court of Appeal went further.



Mr. A reached an agreement with her victim, and sentenced her to probation and released her, stating that her health was not good due to her old age.



Both the first and second trial courts reflected the fact that they were older in their sentence decisions.



Recently, an elderly man in his 80s, who was arrested for raping an elementary school student in Uijeongbu, had a history of molesting children twice in the past.



Through the Supreme Court's search system, we looked into 26 judgments that included the fact that the accused was 'old age' as a factor in sentencing among sex crimes sentenced this year.



Person B, who forcibly molested her elementary school granddaughter several times, was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 4 years of probation.



In this way, the case where the victim was a minor stood out first. There were 7 cases where the victim was a minor, 5 cases for the disabled, and 8 cases for those over the age of 60.



Considering the overlapping cases such as minors and persons with disabilities, 18 out of 26 cases targeted the vulnerable who were vulnerable to crime.



Let's look at the level of punishment.



Of the 26 cases, only 4 were sentenced to imprisonment, but if they had multiple previous convictions or had committed other crimes together, they were sentenced to imprisonment.



When considering the risk of recidivism in general extenuating circumstances among the standards for probation of sex crimes, it is still considered that the risk of recidivism is low if the accused is old.



However, the proportion of older offenders is steadily increasing.



People over the age of 61 make up 6.9% of rape offenders and 14.6% of molestation offenders.



[Shin Jin-hee / Attorney for victims of the Korea Legal Aid Corporation: Ages change, science and technology and life extension technology develop. These concepts such as old age should be reflected in the sentencing as well.



] Recently, among the reasons for considering the probation of probation for sex crimes, the meaning of old age is not clear and the degree of relevance to the risk of recidivism is not clear.



(Video coverage: Jeil Yoon Hyung, Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu)