Jang Yungi (24), who is on trial on charges of brutally murdering a high school girl, is said to have repeatedly made remarks since his school days to the effect that he "wanted to kidnap a high school girl."
According to The Chosun Ilbo on the 21st, prosecutors said a digital forensic analysis of a spare mobile phone he had on him when they apprehended Jang Yungi on May 5 revealed this.
In social media (SNS) messages exchanged with a classmate around the winter of 2019, when Jang Yungi was a first-year high school student, the messages explicitly recorded his references to concrete methods such as "I want to kidnap a high school girl" and "Using a van would work."
Prosecutors then questioned the classmate who exchanged the messages face to face and obtained a statement that "Jang Yungi frequently talked in everyday life about forcibly kidnapping female students," according to reports.
Prosecutors believe this evidence will be key to proving Jang Yungi's distorted sexual values, premeditation, and intent to commit sexual assault. Accordingly, they designated two friends from his school days who can testify about his past behavior and two colleagues who served with him during his alternative service (social service agent) as courtroom witnesses.
Earlier, in April, Jang Yungi was arrested and indicted on charges of murdering a teenage high school girl in Gwangju. After a personal information disclosure committee review, on May 8 police made public Jang Yungi's identity, including his face and name.
In the early stage of the investigation, Jang Yungi claimed the crime was impulsive. But later, allegations emerged that his father and uncle are active-duty police officers and that police systematically covered up his connection to sex crimes. Then at the trial on the 13th, Jang Yungi admitted all charges of rape and murder filed by prosecutors.