Vietnamese girl, 7, raped at home

The police’s composite sketch

Dongdaemun police in Seoul released a composite sketch yesterday of a Korean man who allegedly brought a 7-year-old Vietnamese girl to her empty home Saturday and raped her before escaping with jewelry and petty cash. The girl’s parents were working at the time. The suspect is still at large.

“We have decided to turn this into an open investigation for the rapist’s swift arrest,” Dongdaemun police said yesterday. They are offering a 5 million won ($4,150) reward to anyone in possession of information that leads to the man’s arrest.

The suspect, who is assumed to be in his 30’s, allegedly found the girl playing in the street by herself in her neighborhood in Jangan, Seoul, at around 12:30 p.m. and approached her on his motorcycle saying, “Let’s go play at your house.” After raping the girl, the man took off on his motorcycle with roughly $200 worth of gold rings and 10,000 won in cash he found in the apartment. The girl was later found crying outside the apartment by a neighbor, who called her mother. The girl’s father was the first to arrive on the scene and called the police at 1:04 p.m.

Police at the Dongdaemun precinct said the girl was brought to a hospital an hour after they received the father’s call, but she did not require surgery.The victim was born in Vietnam. Her parents came to the country five years ago and have been residing and working in Korea since. “The girl’s parents expect to acquire Korean citizenship in September,” a police official said. Based on the girl’s statement, the suspect has “saggy eyelids, a wide nose and a pale, narrow face” police said.

At the time of the crime, according to security camera footage, the suspect was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the letters A.P.C, black pants and white sneakers and is presumed to be slender and 173 centimeters (5 feet 8 inches) tall. His motorcycle was a Honda-Daerim CT-100 model mostly used for deliveries and has a yellow plastic basket attached behind the seat.

The police found seven fingerprints, hair and semen at the scene of the crime. One fingerprint matched those of a boyfriend of one of the mother’s friends, and police are looking for the man. The authorities are reviewing security records of previous sexual offenders in the area.

By Kim Jeen-kyung, Christine Kim [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]