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South Korea jails former Olympic coach for sexual assault, but case ‘tip of the iceberg’: academic
- Cho Jae-beom was sentenced to over a decade in prison for abusing gold medallist Shim Suk-hee for three years, in a case that shocked the country
- The speed skater said she hopes this will encourage other victims of abuse to come forward, but a sports professor said many cases go unreported
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The former coach of South Korea’s double Olympic speed skating gold medallist has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison in a notorious case that exposed the seedy side of the country’s sports arena that often prioritises performance at the expense of human rights.
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Cho Jae-beom, 39, was jailed for 10 and a half years on Thursday for sexually assaulting and physically abusing Shim Suk-hee, 23, for more than three years. The abuse started when she was just 17 and continued until a few months before the country hosted the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
The Suwon District Court, 45km south of Seoul, ruled that the crimes were “highly condemnable” and ordered Cho to complete 200 hours of sexual offender treatment while also banning him from working with children, youths and disabled people for seven years.
“The accused repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the victim over a few years, taking advantage of the victim’s inability to stand up against [the national team coach],” the court said in a statement.
The victim suffered severe mental distress from the repeated sexual assaults that she underwent during her adolescence, the court said.
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