Category: crime & punishment

Here is a power tip to anyone using religious rituals to fight demons, make sure you get consent from the person you are holding the ritual for to take their clothes off before doing so:

A shaman has been found guilty of sexual assault for undressing a young woman in public during an invocation rite as she wielded a knife.

Busan District Court sentenced the female shaman, 53, to six months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 40 hours of sexual harassment treatment.

Although the shaman was performing a ritual, the court ruled the act was a sexual assault because it went against sexual ethics.

According to the written judgment on Sunday, a woman, aged in her 20s, and her mother went to the shaman because the daughter was feeling pain.

The shaman told the mother, “We have to remove the male spirit that is stuck on her body. ” The shaman told the daughter to lie down, removed the woman’s undergarments, and then wielded a large knife around her.

The ritual was performed in front of a crowd that included males, which humiliated the woman

Before the ritual, the shaman asked the woman about her sex life and did not inform her about what would happen during the ritual.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

If this woman was able to so easily fool the VA for years to receive benefit money it just makes me wonder how much more fraud is going on?:

A woman faked the birth of a son to collect the veterans benefits for 17 years, according to court documents.

The man who the woman claimed was the father of the child was killed in High Point in 2006.

Elizabeth Hayes Cox, 60, claimed she gave birth to the son of Randall Cox, who was a military veteran receiving Veterans Administration benefits, according to an indictment. Records show she claimed Randall Cox’s benefits should be paid to her for child support, and she fraudulently collected $103,000 in benefits from March 2000 through May of this year.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but you would think the VA would ask for something as simple as a birth certificate to prove her claim?

Some of these sex offenders should be physically castrated, but chemical castration I guess is a start:

The National Assembly passed an amendment on Friday that would allow chemical castration as punishment for people found guilty of attempted rape, expanding the scope of a law punishing sex offenders.

The bill also stipulates that sex offenders whose acts lead to injury or the death of minors are added to the list of those subject to chemical castration.

Under the amendment, chemical castration does not apply to people who film parts of people’s bodies using a hidden camera. The government had proposed that the secret photographing of people be included under the scope of the law.

The law came into effect in 2011 — the first Asian country to adopt this type of treatment — amid public outcry over a series of rapists reoffending following their release.

Chemical castration involves administering medication — either via injection or tablets — to take away sexual interest and make it impossible for a person to perform sexual acts. The effects are reversible after the person stops taking the drug.  [Korea Times]

At least this scumbag is out of society for the rest of his life:

The former U.S. base worker accused of raping and killing a 20-year-old Okinawan woman last year was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor after being convicted of her murder Friday at Naha District Court.

A panel of three judges and six jurors found Kenneth Franklin Gadson, 33, guilty of murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the slaying of Uruma office worker Rina Shimabukuro. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at Yokosuka Prison in Kurihama, barring a successful appeal.

“The life of the victim — who had just celebrated her adulthood — was suddenly taken and her body was abandoned in the bushes,” chief judge Toshihiro Shibata said when reading the verdict.

“Her body was not found until it was reduced to bone; her sorrow is immeasurable … even giving consideration to the fact that the body was found by the concession of the defendant and he had no previous criminal record, there is no reason to find a lighter sentence than life imprisonment,” he added. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

This is a horrible revenge tale:

A 55-year-old woman surnamed Lee and her son were both arrested on Thursday for burying her friend alive on her husband’s farm. The two face charges of murder and abandoning a corpse, while Lee’s husband has since committed suicide after police came to search his property.

On July 14, Lee called up her 49-year-old friend for a drive in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. They were longtime friends, having met at a social club in Seongnam over a decade ago. Lee’s 25-year-old son drove while Lee handed her friend a cup of coffee laced with sleeping pills. The mother-and-son pair drove to the farm of Lee’s husband in Cheorwon County, Gangwon, where they buried her friend alive.

Police began investigating the disappearance on Aug. 10, leaving open the possibility that the friend was being held against her will, given the inactivity they saw on her phone and bank account.

In September, police received reports that Lee had met the victim before her disappearance, and were able to confirm that Lee’s son had rented a car and driven to Cheorwon. Last Friday, the court issued an arrest warrant for Lee and Park on suspicion of holding the victim in confinement. Police arrested the two on Nov. 28.

The same day, police went to search the property of Lee’s husband. Though the 62-year-old husband was not regarded as a suspect, he hung himself in a storage room when they arrived, after excusing himself to the bathroom.

Lee and her son confessed to the crime late Tuesday. “She made me look like a thief,” Lee said.

In June last year, the victim had asked Lee to bring her some belongings from the home she was sharing with her abusive partner. But after the victim’s partner reported Lee to the police for larceny, the victim did not defend Lee. Lee was subsequently convicted and fined.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but hopefully the mother and son spend a long time in prison because that is a horrible way to die.

Chung Yoo-ra is the 21-year old daughter of Choi Soon-sil who is currently imprisoned for using her connections to ex-President Park Geun-hye to enrich herself.  Chung was in the national media spotlight when she was on the run in Europe and ultimately extradited back to South Korea.  Since being extradited her arrest led to no new groundbreaking information and was released.  It looks like new trouble has found Chung as some guy has apparently tried to murder her:

The daughter of Choi Soon-sil, the high-profile confidant of former President Park Geun-hye, avoided possibly being murdered Saturday as police caught a man who had broken into into her home with the alleged intention of killing her.

Chung Yoo-ra, 21, saw a man, identified by his surname Lee, 44, break into her home in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, around 3 p.m.

Lee threatened a security guard at the entrance of her apartment building and forced him to lead him to her suite. Entering her home, he stabbed a man inside.

Police received a report about the break-in and stabbing and arrived at the scene, where they grabbed Lee. The unidentified victim was taken to a hospital where he received a treatment.

During police questioning Lee confessed that he has a monetary issue with Chung.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

At least this pedophile got jail time, but it seems to me he got off pretty light by receiving only three years for committing statutory rape of a 11-year old girl:

An elementary school teacher was sentenced to three years in prison for having sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl.

Suwon District Court handed down the verdict on Monday, finding the teacher 32, surnamed Shin, guilty of violating the Sexual Crime Act against Minors. He was also ordered to undergo 80 hours of anti-sexual crime education.

According to court documents, the teacher got to know the student, then 11, through an unidentified app in October last year. The teacher introduced himself as a 19-year-old and suggested offline dating. The two met at a cafe in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and had sex. He took photos of the girl’s naked body.

“He cannot be forgiven,” wrote Judge Song Kyung-ho in a ruling statement. “Despite his position as an elementary school teacher, he tricked the teenage girl, who has not reached the age to fully understand sexual relations.”

The teacher claimed he didn’t know his partner was an elementary student, but the court dismissed it.  [Korea Times]

Considering this pedophile is an elementary school teacher I wonder if this was his first victim or are there others?  I also wonder if after this guy is released from prison he will some how end up back in a classroom again?

For everyone on Okinawa get ready for likely major anti-US protests due to what this idiot did:

An Okinawa-based Marine’s blood-alcohol content was triple Japan’s legal limit Sunday when his vehicle collided with a minitruck, killing its Japanese driver, police say.

The Marine was “slightly injured” in the 5:30 a.m. JST crash at a Naha intersection, Okinawa policeman Kazuhiko Miyagi told The Associated Press.

The victim – a 61-year-old man – was making a turn when his vehicle was hit by the servicemember’s truck, which was coming in the opposite direction, Japanese media reports said. Witness accounts say the Japanese driver had the right of way, and that the Marine may have gone through a red light.

Miyagi told AP that a breath test indicated the servicemember had a blood-alcohol level that was three times Japan’s legal limit of 0.03 percent.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but three time the legal limit would be a BAC of .09.  So he was not completely smashed, but regardless would be legally drunk in the United States as well.  The highest limit in the US is a BAC of .08.  Then there is the fact he was driving a military vehicle.  If he was drunk on duty that makes this even worse or did he steal the vehicle?  I guess we will eventually find out what happened, but condolences to the family of the deceased driver.  There is never an excuse to drive drunk especially some place with easy access to taxis like Okinawa.

Here is an update from the trial of a former US Marine who killed a Japanese woman on Okinawa last year:

The parents of a 20-year-old Okinawan woman murdered last year told a packed courtroom Friday they want the former Air Force contractor charged in her death to pay for the brutal crime with his life.

“A murderer, who took my daughter’s life, should not be allowed to live,” the mother said in a statement read by her lawyer during the second day of Kenneth Franklin Gadson’s trial at Naha District Court.

Gadson, 33, a former Marine who was a civilian employee at a Kadena Air Base cable and internet provider at the time of his arrest, is charged with murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the death of Rina Shimabukuro. He is being tried under Japan’s lay judge system with three judges and six jurors.

Shimabukuro disappeared after going out for a walk on the evening of April 28, 2016. Gadson became a suspect — and was later charged in the crime — after police spotted his SUV while checking vehicles captured by security cameras in the area.

During the previous day’s proceedings — which mostly focused on whether Shimabukuro’s killing was premeditated — Gadson read a prepared statement pleading guilty to rape resulting in death and illegal disposal of the body but denied the murder charge, stating that he had “no plans to kill her.”

Gadson told the court he planned to knock her unconscious, take her to a hotel in a suitcase to rape her and release her afterward. After failing to knock her out, he panicked and was not able to complete his plan, he said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but I don’t blame the family for wanting this scumbag put down.

Considering this guy’s violent past you would think he would have been locked up long ago before he did something like this:

A man in his 50s who poured gasoline on his ex-girlfriend and set her alight was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The woman, also in her 50s, suffered serious burns and died of complications two weeks after the incident in March 2016.

The Seoul Southern District Court on Monday found the man guilty of attempted murder.

“It was a premeditated crime,” Judge Shim Gyu-hong said. “The ruling was made after taking into account the nature and circumstances of the crime and his criminal record that indicates there are high chances of him committing another crime.”

He had been convicted more than 20 times for violent acts.

The man lived with the woman for a year in 2005. She dumped him in 2006. He tried unsuccessfully to restore the broken relationship over 11 years.

In March 2016, the man visited the woman at work holding a bag containing a gasoline-filled container and a lighter. When she refused to talk to him, he opened the container, poured the gasoline onto her head and set her on fire.  [Korea Times]

What I don’t understand is how is this a conviction for attempted murder when the woman died in the hospital two weeks later?  It seems like murder to me.