Cho Doo-soon, who was put on trial on charges of leaving his residence without permission in violation of a nighttime outing restriction order and damaging an electronic device (electronic ankle monitor), was sentenced to prison again on appeal.
According to legal sources on the 17th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Suwon High Court (presiding judge Shin Hyun-il, high court judge) on this day dismissed both the prosecutor's and the defendant's appeals and upheld the lower court's ruling in the appellate case on charges including violating the Act on Electronic Monitoring.
In the first trial, the court sentenced Cho Doo-soon to eight months in prison and ordered medical treatment and custody. Medical treatment and custody means that when a crime is committed due to a mental disorder, the person receives treatment at a specialized facility such as the National Forensic Hospital instead of being incarcerated in prison.
The appellate court said, "The reasons for appeal asserted by both the prosecutor and the defendant were fully considered when the lower court set the sentence, and it is difficult to find any change in circumstances after the lower court's ruling that would warrant altering the sentence."
From late March to early June last year, Cho Doo-soon is accused of leaving his residence in Ansan, Gyeonggi, and violating the "restriction on outings during school dismissal hours" four times. He is also accused of intentionally damaging the location-tracking electronic device inside his home.
Cho Doo-soon was released in Dec. 2020 after serving 12 years in prison on charges of kidnapping and raping an elementary school student and causing serious injuries in 2008. In Dec. 2023, he also served three months in prison for violating a nighttime outing ban order.