Repeat offender gets 10 years for sexual assault of minors

SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- A man convicted for sexual assault on minors was again sentenced to 10 years in prison after a court convicted him of molesting two young girls just weeks after his release.

The Seoul High Court upheld a lower court's verdict against the 36-year-old,
whose name was withheld, for assaulting the minors last winter. The repeat
offender had been released at the end of September 2007 after serving 10 years in
prison for sex crimes against seven minors.
Barely weeks after his release, the man approached an 11-year-old girl who was
heading home and took her by force to the roof of an apartment building. Two
months later, he assaulted a 10-year-old girl in a basement, threatening her with
a lethal weapon.
The convict claimed in court that he is a pedophile and is unable to control his
sexual impulses.
A lower court dismissed the argument that his mental illness caused him to commit
the crime and handed down a 10-year prison sentence.
His appeal was rejected by the high court.
"He clearly remembers how he committed the crime against the young victims, and
there is no record to prove that he had been treated for pedophilia," Judge Park
Hyung-nam said. "Even if he suffers from pedophilia, it cannot been seen as
serious enough to deprive him of the ability to discern" his actions.
The government recently introduced an electronic tracking device for sex
offenders to wear around their ankles at the time of their release in an effort
to curb the growing number of repeat sex offenders. The tracking system alerts
monitoring officials when offenders enter banned areas, such as former victims'
residential areas or school zones, or violate their curfew.
Fifty-three sex offenders were ordered to wear the tracking anklets at the end of
last month in the first of such cases.