Police are continuing an investigation into allegations that women with disabilities were sexually assaulted at a facility for people with severe disabilities on Ganghwa Island in Incheon.
According to police on the 19th, the Women and Juvenile Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is currently investigating the head of Saekdongwon, a residential facility for people with severe developmental disabilities, identified as A, on charges including rape and forcible indecency against a person with a disability under the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.
Police received a tip in May last year and launched a preliminary inquiry before booking. After identifying four victims, they raided Saekdongwon in September last year.
Police expanded the investigation last month after obtaining the Incheon Ganghwa County residential facility for people with disabilities (Saekdongwon) resident in-depth investigation report. The report is said to contain statements from 19 people, including 17 women with disabilities and two former residents, that they suffered sexual violence and other sexual harm by A. Ganghwa County commissioned a domestic university research institute to conduct the related investigation.
A police official said, "The investigation will be expanded to include additional victims listed in the report," and noted, "We are focusing on clearly establishing the facts of the crime."
This case is being called the Incheon version of "Dogani" because it is similar to the special-education school abuse case known from the novel and the film of the same name by writer Gong Ji-young. At the time, it was revealed that nine students with hearing impairments at Inhwa School in Gwangju were subjected to sexual assault and other abuse by faculty and staff.