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Police face backlash for not charging high school senior who followed 1st grader into bathroom with attempted sexual assault

Published: 23 Oct. 2025, 15:41 Updated: 23 Oct. 2025, 17:16

A high school senior follows an elementary school girl into a women's restroom on July 14. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A case involving a high school senior who followed a first-grade girl into a restroom has drawn public outrage after police said it was “difficult to apply the charge of attempted sexual assault.”

According to JTBC’s “Crime Chief” report on Thursday, the incident occurred around 5 p.m. on July 14 in a commercial building, where the victim — an elementary school student — stopped to use the restroom after attending an academy. A male high school student followed her inside.

When the girl came out of a stall, the student allegedly tried to drag her into another stall. After she resisted, he chased her toward the men's restroom before she broke free and ran away. CCTV footage showed the suspect loitering near the restroom and watching the girl before following her inside.

Police arrested the student the next day. He admitted to “trying to touch” the victim, and investigators found sexual exploitation material on his phone.

However, police charged him only with trespassing in a public place for sexual purposes and possession of sexual exploitation material, not attempted sexual assault. The trespassing charge applies when a person enters a public facility — such as a restroom or bathhouse — to satisfy sexual desire and carries up to one year in prison or a 10 million won ($7,200) fine.

An activist against online child pornography performs in front of the Supreme Court in Seoul in Oct. 2021 before a ruling on a high-profile online sexual exploitation trial is made. [YONHAP]

Police reportedly made this determination because “arms or hands are not areas that can cause sexual shame, and the contact time between the suspect and victim was very brief.”

The male student received a transfer disposition from the school violence countermeasures deliberation committee.

The victim, who is receiving psychiatric treatment, was diagnosed with injuries requiring 20 weeks of care. Her parents expressed disbelief at the conclusion.

“The police said, ‘Looking at precedents, grabbing an arm for one or two seconds and immediately letting go doesn't constitute attempted molestation,’” said the elementary student's parents. “I don't understand that.”

“My daughter is receiving psychiatric treatment and counseling,” they said. “She gets scared just seeing students in school uniforms.”

“Since the male student is over 14, he is not a juvenile delinquent subject to special juvenile laws,” said Attorney Park Ji-hoon. “While punishment is possible, being under 18 also makes a juvenile protection case possible. If the trial proceeds as a juvenile protection case, he will likely receive a very light punishment.”

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]