Accused of groping on a Korean subway: what should I do now?

Cut off all communication with the complainant, and do not try to explain yourself to them on the platform, through a friend, or by message afterwards. Ask for a lawyer and an interpreter before any questioning begins, and say nothing you are not sure of. Touching someone in a crowded place such as public transport, a performance or a gathering is a specific offence whose penalty reaches 3 years of imprisonment, or 30 million won as a fine, and it does not end because the complainant later decides to forgive you. If a settlement is going to be discussed at all, it has to go through your lawyer, never through you.

What is the charge, and how does it differ from others?

What is alleged	The offence relied on	Penalty range
Touching in a crowded place: a train, bus, concert, festival or similar	Indecent act in a crowded place (성폭력처벌법)	3 years of imprisonment, or 30 million won as a fine
Touching with force or a threat, in any place	Indecent act by compulsion (형법)	10 years of imprisonment, or 15 million won as a fine
Touching a person who was unconscious or unable to resist, including through drink	Treated as the offence above	Same as above

The provision that once made this kind of case dependent on the victim's complaint was deleted years ago. Two consequences follow. A case can proceed although the complainant never files anything in writing, because a bystander or station officer can report it, and a complaint later withdrawn does not close the file.

Why must I not contact the complainant?

Because every route to them hurts you. An approach can be characterised as leaning on a witness, one of the grounds raised for keeping a person in custody. Messages meant as an apology are read out later as admissions or as threats, depending on the wording. Pulling in a friend, a colleague or someone from your workplace to talk to them puts that person at risk too.

If you want an apology conveyed, your lawyer can do it in a form that does not damage you.

How do I prepare for the questioning?

1. Set out for your lawyer alone, in order: where you boarded, where you stood, which hand held what, and where you got off, with times.
2. Keep your transport card record, phone location history and any photo from that day, and delete nothing, including messages about the incident.
3. Ask for an interpreter if fluent legal Korean is beyond you. Before questioning starts you must be informed of three things: that you may stay silent, that silence will not count against you, and that counsel may be present.
4. Answer only what you actually remember. In these cases the gap between "I did not" and "I do not think I did" is the whole case.
5. Read the written record before signing, correct anything that is not what you said, and never sign a page whose meaning is unclear to you.

What evidence usually decides these cases?

Station and carriage cameras, the time stamps on your card tap in and tap out, the position of your bag and the clothing you wore, the account of anyone standing nearby, and the complainant's own first description. Camera recordings are not kept indefinitely and the retention period differs by operator, so a request is urgent and normally goes through your lawyer, not through you asking station staff. Where the complainant and witnesses describe different hands, heights or positions, those differences are what a defence is built from, so they have to be identified early.

Can a settlement make it go away?

Not by itself. A settlement does not stop the case, because this is not an offence that ends with forgiveness. What it can do is affect how the case is treated at the charging stage and the sentence a court imposes. Where the complainant refuses any contact, which is their right, a payment can instead be deposited with the court. Both routes are handled by your lawyer, with the amount and wording set in advance. Sending money or an apology letter directly is the most common mistake: it reaches the file as evidence that you accept the account against you.

What does a conviction mean for me as a foreign resident?

Two consequences run beyond the criminal court.

• Registration of personal information. Conviction for this group of offences, including by a summary order imposing only a fine, brings registration duties. The period depends on the sentence, and for a fine it is 10 years.
• Your stay. Immigration decides separately, on its own grounds, and a sexual offence is treated seriously even where the sentence is a fine. Nothing here is automatic, which is why the gap between the possible outcomes of the criminal case is worth arguing over.

Tell your lawyer at the start what status you hold, the length of your residence in Korea, and which family members rely on you. Those facts belong in the criminal case, not only in a later immigration form.

Next step

Before anything else: no contact with the complainant, nothing posted online about the incident or about them, and nothing deleted from your phone. Then bring your own account of the day, your transport record and your residence card (외국인등록증) so we can see what footage can still be requested and in what order. Consultations are paid, and our staff explain the fee when they call you back.

법무법인 대한중앙
1533-7377

Rules applied

Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (성폭력범죄의 처벌 등에 관한 특례법) Article 11 (indecent act in a crowded place such as public transport or a place of performance or assembly: up to 3 years or a fine up to 30 million won), Article 42(1) (a person is subject to registration where a judgment of guilt or a summary order for a registrable sexual offence becomes final; only fines under Articles 12 and 13 are excluded) and (2) (the court must notify the person of the duty), Article 45(1) item 4 (registration period of 10 years where a fine is imposed). Criminal Act (형법) Article 298 (indecent act by compulsion: up to 10 years or 15 million won), Article 299 (an indecent act on a person who is unconscious or unable to resist is treated under Article 298), Article 306 (deleted; the former requirement of a victim's complaint). Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법) Article 243-2 (participation of defence counsel in questioning), Article 244 (preparation of the record of questioning, to be read and corrected before signature), Article 244-3(1) (notice before questioning of the right to silence, that silence will not be held against the person, and of the right to counsel), Article 221(2) (interpretation and translation may be commissioned). Named without article numbers: 출입국관리법 (체류 심사), 공탁 절차.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different.