Jeju's 'Tumbler bodily fluid terror' charges of attempted forcible harassment and stalking added

The suspect in the 'tumbler bodily fluid terror incident' that occurred at an elementary school in Seogwipo, Jeju Island last April was charged with sexual crimes, including attempted forcible harassment.

Last July, the Supreme Court ruled that similar acts of bodily fluid terrorism constitute forcible harassment, which appears to have had an impact on the investigation of this case.

Seogwipo Police Station announced on the 4th that it had forwarded additional charges of attempted forcible assault and stalking to the Public Prosecution Office against teenager A, who was booked on charges of breaking into a building and damaging property.

Person A is accused of secretly breaking into a classroom at an elementary school in Seogwipo City on the afternoon of April 27, putting bodily fluids in female teacher B's tumbler, and running away.

Also, on June 5th, he was accused of breaking into the classroom where Teacher B was the homeroom teacher, urinating on the teacher's chair, and running away.

Teacher B suffered mental trauma after the crime and demanded severe punishment for the perpetrator, but the police initially had no choice but to charge A with trespassing and damaging property.

At the time, the legal judgment was unclear as to whether the act of injecting bodily fluids into an object without direct physical contact with the victim could be considered an exercise of tangible force (exercise of physical force) in the crime of forcible molestation.

While the investigation into this case was in progress, the Supreme Court ruled in July that the incident of bodily fluid terrorism against a female cafe employee that occurred in another region in 2024 constituted forcible harassment.

The purpose is that the defendant's act of putting bodily fluids in the beverage consumed by a female cafe employee constitutes an exercise of coercive force against the victim's will and constitutes an indecent assault that violates sexual freedom.

In addition, it was explained that since the contact was made by allowing bodily fluids with strong sexual connotations into the victim's body, when taken together, this constitutes forcible molestation.

A police official said, "In this Jeju incident, bodily fluid was intentionally put into the tumbler and the victim could have drank it, so we applied the charge of sexual assault, considering that there was a tangible use of the crime of forcible molestation."

He continued, “However, since the bodily fluids did not reach the point of contact with the victim’s body, it was determined that the forcible molestation was merely an attempt.”