Olle Trail murderer gets 23 years in prison

JEJU - A 46-year-old local man was sentenced to 23 years behind bars yesterday for killing a female tourist from Seoul on the country’s southern resort island of Jeju after his failed rape attempt.

The defendant, who is only known by his surname Kang, was charged with killing the 40-year-old woman who was on vacation, on one of the island’s Olle coastal trekking paths in July and dismembering her body.

The Jeju District Court also ordered Kang to wear an electronic monitoring anklet for 10 years after his release from prison.

The high-profile case, which occurred at one of the country’s most popular vacation destinations, has stoked safety concerns.

Some parts of the paths were temporarily closed until being reopened last month.

During the trial, Kang argued he killed the victim by accident, retracting an earlier statement he made about his attempted rape during questioning by prosecutors.

The court dismissed that claim and “accepted his earlier confession that he tried to rape the victim.”

The court adopted a jury trial system with nine jury members.

Korea introduced the system in 2008 on a limited basis in which a jury is convened in criminal cases if a defendant asks the court to have civilians hear the case. The jury’s verdict is non-binding and the country still holds a bench trial, in which a judge makes all decisions.

All nine jury members unanimously delivered a guilty verdict that Kang had dismembered and abandoned the victim’s body but three disagreed that Kang had tried to rape her.

Yonhap