Staff Writer
A guy who killed the lady he had been stalking for years was given a life term in jail by a South Korean court on Tuesday.
After the victim reported him to police for stalking, 32-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan was found guilty of killing an ex-colleague in retaliation.
Jeon stalked and threatened the woman more than 300 times over nearly two years, but despite her repeated reports, he was never imprisoned because police thought he posed a “low risk” to the public.
He fatally stabbed her in a public lavatory at a Seoul subway station on September 14 of last year, the day before Jeon was scheduled to be sentenced for stalking.
According to reports, Jeon admitted to investigators that the legal issues his victim had given him had made him angry. After she first accused him of stalking, he lost his job at the Seoul Metro, where the woman also worked.
In the murder case, a district court had sentenced Jeon to 40 years in jail in February. For stalking, he was also sentenced to nine years.
Prosecutors have consolidated the two cases for an appellate judgement and asked for harsher penalties.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the court stated that “revenge crime requires strict punishment as it incapacitates the criminal justice system,” according to Yonhap news agency.
“There is a great need to make it clear that those who violate the life of an innocent person with unreasonable intention and purpose will pay the price in order to prevent such a crime from occurring again.”
Jeon’s case will automatically be brought to the Supreme Court for a final decision since a criminal defendant who receives a life sentence or a more severe punishment is not permitted by law to give up their right to appeal.
