※Editor’s Note: This series documents attorney Lee Eunui’s legal battles on sexual violence and #MeToo cases, which have brought controversy in Korean society for the last several years.

 

▲ Ms. Shin is enjoying much healthier days while studying musical theater and competing as a sambo (a type of martial arts) national team member. She won a medal at the national team selection event last year. ⓒShin Yuyong

The First Criminal Trial, the First Testimony by the Victim

 

The #MeToo criminal trial of Shin Yuyong’s abuser began. Ms. Shin, a former national judo team athlete and a whistleblower, had revealed her experience of constant sexual abuse by her judo coach during her first year of high school.

 

On the day of Ms. Shin’s testimony, many people were sitting in the courtroom pews to support her. There was somel turmoil after the judges ordered them to leave the court, deciding to hold a closed trial. As I asked for an order to withdraw the defendant from the court as well, the judges ordered the victim to go inside [a separate room] and testify through videoconferencing. We instead chose that the victim and the supporters should stay inside the courtroom. The judges denied our request to set a privacy screen around the accused to protect the victim, saying the court did not have one. Thus, the victim had to testify in person with the defendant merely 1.5 meters away from her.

 

As soon as I had taken her case, I had immediately suggested limiting the charges to the first incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault, in which the exertion of physical force was evident, to minimize the burden and pain that could be experienced by the victim during the legal fight. If the accused pleaded guilty, the court would decide how guilty he was and reflect it in his sentence. The prosecutor agreed. So the legal issues or the subjects that needed to be dealt with on the day of the testimony were narrowed down a certain amount.

 

I do not know how the accused remembers it, but for the victim, what happened that day is as vivid as yesterday. The victim gave a reasonable answer no matter what the defense attorney asked. The attorney asked accusingly if it wasn’t true that she had eaten a certain snack in the defendant’s room shortly after the first sexual assault. The answer was neither yes nor no. “Me? I don’t like that snack,” Ms. Shin responded. That brought a clearly quizzical look to the attorney's face, and the exchange prompted sighs and then laughter in the courtroom.

 

It is never easy to dig up an uncomfortable memory, but Ms. Shin did not stop her testimony even as she shed tears. It was after she finished her testimony that she finally broke down, falling into my arms. The victim’s mother, who had barely managed to take time off from work and even more barely managed to prepare herself to listen to her daughter’s story, also could not hold back tears during the trial.

 

▲ We went back and forth from Seoul Station to Iksan Station for the prosecutor’s investigation and criminal trial. Ms. Shin took photos of me nervously checking my to-do-list on the train to Iksan (left) and also me dozing off out of fatigue after being released from tension on the train back to Seoul (right). ⓒShin Yuyong

“We were in a relationship”: a hard-to-believe claim and the defense's absurd witnesses

 

The victim’s testimony was only the end of the first half of a dreadful criminal trial. On the next court date, the court conducted an examination of the witnesses called by the accused. The victim came all the way from Seoul just to observe it, but the judges made her leave the court as her presence could make the witnesses uncomfortable. Only I, the victim’s attorney, stayed in the courtroom.

 

The witnesses’ testimony was… unbelievable. One witness claimed that the victim, who had had no sexual experience, said about the sexual assault by her coach, “It hurt, but I liked it.” When asked by the prosecutor about the regular beating by the accused, the same person said that the accused rightfully beat Ms. Shin because she gained a couple of grams over on weekends when she went home and that she actually should be thankful for it.

 

Another witness emphasized that she saw the victim linking arms with the defendant in 2011. The judge then asked the witness what grade the witness was that year. The witness responded that she was sure Ms. Shin was a first-year in high school, but that she remembered neither her own age nor her own grade at that time.

 

I had been very worried that the defense’s lies would blemish the victim, but after hearing the poor testimony by those witnesses, I realized I had been worried for nothing.

 

The perpetrator insisted until the end that he had never committed sexual assault and that he had been in a relationship with the victim.

 

Ms. Shin was the only student on a need-based scholarship among the 25 students on the middle and high school judo teams. She put her heart and soul into keeping, exchanging, and aesthetically decorating her diary throughout high school. She filled it with little moments of her life as a high school girl and heart-fluttering stories regarding her same-aged boyfriend at that time. The defendant repeatedly said they were in a relationship, but he knew nothing about her, had no mementos to remind him of her or even specific memories of her. This hard-to-believe “relationship” argument just proved how he treated the victim, a young high school girl.

 

On the last court date, I made a final statement as the victim’s attorney, quoting her mother’s petition to the court. “What was on your mind when I gave you congratulatory money for your marriage and said thank you without knowing I was at the wedding of my daughter’s rapist?”

 

▲ Local civil activists, including those from women’s groups, came to court during the criminal trials in order to support the #MeToo accusation made by Ms. Shin. The picture above captured the moment of us having a get-together after the first criminal trial.

After the trial, we attended a gathering for support organized by local activists from women’s organizations who had come to the courthouse while persistently raising their voices for the #MeToo movement in the sports community. Ms. Shin had had no adults to depend on at 16, but she had a lot of adults who stood by her side at 23. Even though they had never met before, every one of them brought a little flame that eventually lit up our hearts during our time in Gunsan.

 

A Sudden Turnaround at the Appellate Court: The Perpetrator Reflecting on His Misconduct

 

The criminal trial started in the depths of winter--and we endured two changes in season until the ruling of the first trial came out in the summer. The perpetrator was sentenced to six years in prison, which prompted an appeal from both the defendant, who considered it ‘too much,’ and the prosecutor, who thought of it as ‘not enough.’ The end of one proceeding brought the beginning of another proceeding immediately.

 

The severe punishment of six years in jail made the perpetrator suddenly change his attitude and reflect on his misconduct at the appellate court. His attorney even came to my office, saying the perpetrator wanted to ask for forgiveness. His elderly mother, who had to take care of her three grandchildren after their mother, her daughter-in-law, left them, proposed a large amount of settlement money, saying she would sell her house if she had to. As a matter of fact, Ms. Shin could not ask for damages because the civil statute of limitations had expired. However, she had never thought about settling from the start. It was bad for the perpetrator’s elderly mother, but what Ms. Shin really wanted was something he could not give: her girlhood back.

 

Meanwhile, the prosecutor brought another charge against him because his allegation that Ms. Shin had made a false accusation was the actual false accusation. As the judges had to take the new charge into account, the last court date of the appellate trial was in the following year.

 

And at last, he was sentenced to six years and five months at the appellate trial. It was overwhelming.

 

▲ After the final court date of appellate trial—we had our own after-party at Jeonju Hanok Village, to celebrate the conclusion of the criminal case. ⓒShin Yuyong

Our Life Goes on

 

Just a year before the final verdict, our “Iksan Adventure” had begun with the first victim interview at the Gunsan Branch of the Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office. From there, we kept running, passing interrogations, the first trial, and the appellate trial. From my first meeting with Ms. Shin, our every moment was memorable.

 

Her big eyes got easily pricked with tears, but she laughed more frequently than she cried. She laughed at my awkward jokes even though I was her mother’s age, and giggled at trivial moments of daily life. I had been feeling like I was standing at the center of the battleground by taking #MeToo cases since 2019, but Ms. Shin became a source of strength to me during those trips to Iksan. This case and this person that had only weighed on my heart at first eventually came to move it with mixed feelings of happiness, resentment, love, and joy.

 

Gochang, her wound of the past; Gunsan and Jeonju, sites of the hardship of investigations and trials -- I came to wish that Ms. Shin could leave those places behind. So on January 11, 2020, after the last day of the appeal hearing, we decided to go to Jeonju to have our own after-party.

 

We went to Jeonju Hanok Village after court adjourned. Ms. Shin was hyped, with her face still all swollen up from crying as she listened to my last statement. She said she often visited the hanok village after a hard week of practice in high school. That day, we rented hanbok and dressed up, before strolling here and there, eating this and that, drinking, and visiting a photo booth. Including the train ride home afterwards, we spent ten hours talking after court that day, but that was not enough. There was nothing special in our conversation, but now and again we would almost burst into tears. Nevertheless, we laughed more that we cried.

 

Our relationship was built by chance, but we together reached the point that is essential for Ms. Shin as well as our society. This is how our case concluded; however, our life goes on. Ms. Shin continues to study musical theater and competes as a national sambo (a type of martial arts) team athlete. I look forward to the day when her past suffering, #MeToo accusation, and trials all become a part of the past for Shin Yuyong, a musical actress and a sambo athlete.

 

*Lee Eunui graduated from law school in 2014 and became a lawyer. She opened “Lee Eunui Law Firm” right in front of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office and has been dealing with various cases of sexual violence and sex discrimination. She is not dreaming of extraordinary justice or immersive progress in our society, but a world with common sense, a world where reasonable thoughts and discourse are valid. She has been on the frontline of a legal battleground for nine years as a lawyer as well as a writer who published books such as Leaving Samsung, It’s Okay to Be Sensitive, Ready to Feel Uncomfortable, and Gentle Violence. [Translated by Jun Jihai] 

 

Published: November 12, 2022 *Original article: http://ildaro.com/9483

 

◆ To see more English-language articles from Ilda, visit our English blog(https://ildaro.blogspot.com).

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