And on the Kiddie Fiddling English Teacher Front…

by Robert Koehler on February 12, 2009

Remember the Canadian dude in Seong-dong accused of molesting three 1st grade girls in this English class last October?

Well, police yesterday applied for a detention warrant.

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

1 R. Elgin February 12, 2009 at 3:41 pm: I was alarmed to read the last post on the previous thread about this issue:

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2009/01/15/canadian-teacher-accused-of-child-molestation/#comment-209243

. . . – I’ve known the accused person in question for over 5 years
- I would trust him with ALL of my children, behind closed doors, NO QUESTION
- I’ve been briefed on the “incident”, which appears to be a fabrication, perhaps started by the children and then reinforced by the parents, railroaded by the police, and stampeded into the press (one of the parents used to be a reporter). Unfortunately, I can’t go into further details until the case finishes either in, or out of, court.

One does tend to be wary of the response of the police in this case, or any other, because their ineptness is the stuff of folk-legend. Seeing how mere PR pressure on the police here can cause things to happen that should never happen in any society that claims a system of justice founded upon the rule of law, events like this are enough to worry anyone.
2 tbonetylr February 12, 2009 at 6:16 pm: That last post on that thread also said he is married to a Korean female. Why did someone early on say he is on an E-2 visa, maybe he was but not anymore? Did the Korean article tell what type of visa he had or has, if so I didn’t see it?
3 ElCanguro February 12, 2009 at 6:43 pm: If, and that’s a big IF, the individual in question is truly innocent of the charges laid before him, it’s a terrible predicament he finds himself in.

IF he is innocent, I fear this guy hasn’t got a chance in hell unless one or all of the girls fess up and tell the truth before he stand trial.

I fear this will drive more native teachers away from Korea — who in their right minds would want to move halfway across the world and work in an environment where you already have little (ie. no) rights and could easily find yourself in prison over some disgruntled kid’s false accusation whereby the media and society in general will fry you before you stand trial? That’s all based on the assumption of course that this guy is actually innocent.

If he isn’t, I’ve got no pity for him whatsoever.
4 The Goat February 12, 2009 at 9:17 pm: If university girls realized how much power they actually have over their foreign professor, no male in their right mind would want to work at one.

Slightly off topic but oh well.
5 barbarbar February 12, 2009 at 9:19 pm: Criminal conviction rates are 100% in Korea. Being investigated = guilty.
6 dda February 12, 2009 at 9:59 pm: And you pulled this statistic from where…?
7 lupin_the_4th February 12, 2009 at 11:27 pm: Re: (6.) I think ’3bar’ meant to say, “If there’s a warrant out on whitey – whitey is done for.” He’s correct in the general idea, if not the ‘statistic’ he included.

Try this at home: name ONE instance wherein a Korean person (public-figure or otherwise) has admitted, “I was wrong and I will stop this non-sense.”
8 globalvillageidiot February 13, 2009 at 1:01 am: “Criminal conviction rates are 100% in Korea. Being investigated = guilty.”

Don’t know if it is quite 100%, but I think it would likely be at least 90%, which in most countries would be a serious indication that something was really wrong.
9 Pohang February 13, 2009 at 4:58 am: I lifted this quote from Brendon Carr’s Korea Law blog. Don’t know if he has all his ducks in a row on this one or not:

What’s interesting to me is that there is already plenty of incentive in the Korean system for an accused to confess and plead guilty, notably an end to interrogation without charge or counsel which can last up to 21 days, but also including leniency in sentencing upon the inevitable conviction (criminal accused in Korea face a conviction rate greater than 99%, which means once charged, odds are overwhelming that the accused will be convicted and punished).

http://www.korealawblog.com/entry/korean_prosecution_studying_introduction_of_plea-bargaining_system/
10 Yu Bum Suk February 13, 2009 at 9:01 am: “What’s interesting to me is that there is already plenty of incentive in the Korean system for an accused to confess and plead guilty, notably an end to interrogation without charge or counsel which can last up to 21 days, but also including leniency in sentencing upon the inevitable conviction (criminal accused in Korea face a conviction rate greater than 99%, which means once charged, odds are overwhelming that the accused will be convicted and punished).”

It’s like that all over Asia, to stop the judges, prosecutors, and police from losing face. The fact that it casts doubt on the guilt of everyone convicted doesn’t seem to matter.
11 josesiem February 13, 2009 at 10:11 am: “I fear this will drive more native teachers away from Korea — who in their right minds would want to move halfway across the world and work in an environment where you already have little…”

Well, I’d still prefer to teach in Korea, than say, Detroit, my home town! There’s danger anywhere you teach in the world, whether it’s from guns, knives, or children looking for attention.
12 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) February 13, 2009 at 9:32 pm: Conviction rates are high everywhere. Check out the statistics for American conviction rates — over 80% in nearly every jurisdiction. I think California’s approaches 70% for felonies, which is not all crimes.
13 Bipolar Mindscrew February 14, 2009 at 3:24 am: You’d think conviction rates should be high… otherwise, why would the police waste time investigating obviously innocent people.

Korea’s 90%+ conviction rate may simply rest on the fact that the police don’t press a charge until they are dead sure they’ve got their man (nevermind that it takes them longer to get to that stage)…
14 adeptitus February 15, 2009 at 12:35 pm: Without further investigation, I’d consider any for/against posts to be hearsay. This is an unpleasant incident regardless of his guilt or innocence, but it’s also one that cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet. The Catholic Church tried that before and it turned badly for them.

What’s important here is that the man should be entitled to a fair trial and not a witch hunt. But just because we don’t like to see him being charged, doesn’t mean that there aren’t real pedophiles out there.
15 R. Elgin February 15, 2009 at 2:06 pm: You are right “adeptitus”.

I think that what disturbs most who read this is the perception that foreigners are easy marks in a legal system that places the assumption of guilty upon anyone accused, especially when the accusations are the results of public opinion or special interests that out weight any impartial determination of wrong-doing. It is uncomfortable to consider that this could happen to almost anyone.