A woman in her 40s who assaulted a man in his 20s after catching him secretly filming her in a women's restroom has been fined by a South Korean court.
Judge Seok Dong-woo of the Changwon District Court's Criminal Division 4 sentenced the woman, identified only as A, to a fine of 300,000 won on assault charges, the court said Wednesday.
A was indicted on charges of striking the face of a man in his 20s, identified as B, multiple times after he secretly filmed her urinating in a women's restroom on the first floor of a building in Seongsan-gu, Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, at around 5:40 a.m. on December 8, 2024.
The investigation found that B had committed an illegal filming offense at the time. He was already serving a three-year suspended sentence following a one-year-and-two-month prison term handed down in 2023 for violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (filming and distribution using cameras).
A denied the assault during the trial, but the court did not accept her claim.
"While B confessed to the crime of secretly filming A urinating, he consistently testified about being assaulted. Considering that B, who was on probation and desperately needed to reach an amicable settlement with A, would have had no reason to fabricate the assault, the assault can be acknowledged," the court said.
"Taking into account the overall circumstances — including the fact that A not only blocked the entrance with her leg to prevent B, who was apologizing for the filming, from escaping, but also struck him in the face approximately 15 to 17 times — her actions cannot be regarded as self-defense or as a justifiable act not violating social norms," the court added.
Under current law, self-defense requires an act taken in response to an unjust and ongoing infringement to protect the legal interests of oneself or another, with reasonable means and proportionate force. The court appears to have determined that A's conduct exceeded the scope of self-defense in this case.
