Apology for S Korean woman convicted of biting man's tongue as he attacked her
"For 61 years, the state made me live as a criminal," Ms Choi told reporters outside the court ahead of the hearing.She said she hoped future generations could live a happy life free from sexual violence.At the start of the trial, Busan's Chief Prosecutor Jeong Myeong-won said "we sincerely apologise"."We have caused Choi Mal-ja, a victim of a sex crime who should have been protected as one, indescribable pain and agony."A final ruling is scheduled for 10 September, with legal observers expecting the court to overturn Ms Choi's conviction.Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Ms Choi raised her fist and said: "We won!"She celebrated by embracing campaigners from civic organisations who were there to support her.
In 1964, an 18-year-old Choi Mal-ja was attacked by a 21-year-old man, who forced his tongue into her mouth as he pinned her to the ground in the southern town of Gimhae, according to court records.Ms Choi escaped the attack by biting off 1.5cm (0.59in) of the aggressor's tongue.The man was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, for trespassing and intimidation. He was never convicted of attempted rape.Ms Choi was given a harsher sentence than her attacker for causing him grievous bodily harm. The court at the time said her actions had exceeded the "reasonable bounds" of self-defence.Ms Choi's case has since been cited in legal textbooks in South Korea as a classic example of a court failing to recognise self-defence during sexual violence.
'Justice is alive in this country'
After taking inspiration from South Korea's #MeToo movement in the late 2010s, Ms Choi contacted advocacy groups to begin work on petitioning for a retrial.She filed a petition in 2020, 56 years after the attack, but it was initially rejected by the lower courts. Three years later, the Supreme Court ruled that Ms Choi's retrial could go ahead.Her fight for justice became well known in South Korea, with Ms Choi and fellow activists holding protests outside the Supreme Court building in Seoul."I still can't believe it," Ms Choi said after Wednesday's hearing, the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper reported."But if the prosecution is admitting its mistake even now, then I believe justice is alive in this country."
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Daily Record
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BBC News
2 hours ago
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Murders without a body Other Scottish cases where no body was found include:Allison McGarrigle, who vanished in June 1997 and was formally declared dead eight years later. Paedophiles Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan were later jailed for her Spence, who disappeared in April 2011. Colin Coats and Philip Wade were found guilty of abducting, torturing and murdering the Fleming, a vulnerable 19-year-old who was killed by Edward Cairney and Avril Jones between December 1999 and January 2000. Jones then continued to claim £182,000 in benefits until it finally emerged Margaret was missing in October 2016. The pair were finally convicted in July 2019. Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that withholding the whereabouts of a body should be "an important part of the consideration" for said: "There are grieving families out there who have been unable to find closure throughout this process."And there are people, who they see that could be released from prison, that still know to this day where the remains of their loved ones are."I think that's morally indefensible. So do the families and many of the organisations that support them." 'Complex process' Defence Edith Forrest KC told the programme she had every sympathy with the families of murder victims who had never been she said she thought the proposed amendment to the bill would "make little difference to how the Parole Board approach such cases". "Rule 12 is specifically directed at prisoners who withhold that sort of information and whether they may take that into account. Almost inevitably that is exactly the information they would consider in the parole assessment."The Parole Board is there to assess risk, and that is a complex process, and something like that is exactly the sort of thing they would be looking at."Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the families had endured a "terrible journey".She said the Scottish government was "fully committed" to the amendment and there was "no risk of it being watered down".Constance said: "I want to see a strengthening of the law, a law that will require that the Parole Board must take into consideration if a prisoner has not disclosed the remains of their victim."The amendment is also supported by Victim Support executive Kate Wallace said: "It is a simple change of one word, but the impact on the families who have lost a loved one in this way will be enormous."
