Cho Doo-soon (72), a child rapist who was brought to trial on charges of violating a movement restriction order, was again taken into custody in court.
According to legal sources on the 28th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Ahn Hyo-seung) sentenced Cho Doo-soon, who was indicted without detention on charges including violating the Act on the Attachment of Electronic Devices, to eight months in prison. The court also issued an arrest warrant and, citing concerns about reoffending, ordered medical custody.
The court said, "You left your residence five times, and you must have known well that you violated the compliance requirements, including damaging the home monitoring device," and added, "You have multiple prior criminal penalties and were previously sentenced to three years in prison for violating the movement restriction, yet you committed another crime."
However, the court ruled, "It appears the offense was committed in a state of diminished capacity; the outings lasted only a few minutes before returning under probation supervision and cannot be considered grave; and two instances of damaging the electronic device remained attempts. These are considered favorable factors."
Cho Doo-soon was indicted on charges of leaving his home in Danwon District, Ansan, Gyeonggi, without permission at about 8 a.m. on Oct. 10 last year. He also faces charges of going outside his house for a few minutes on four occasions from March to June of the same year.
Earlier, prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Cho Doo-soon to two years in prison.