A police officer who smashed his son's phone after learning the son tried to secretly film a female teacher's body was not referred to prosecutors under a special provision for family members.
The North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency said on the 13th it decided not to refer Inspector A, who had been investigated on suspicion of disposing of a phone containing evidence of his son's illegal filming, by applying the family-member special provision.
Inspector A was accused of breaking and throwing away his high school son B's phone after learning in May that B tried to secretly film parts of his homeroom teacher's body with the device.
At the time, the Jeonju Wansan Police Station investigation team, without securing the missing phone, sent B to prosecutors on a charge of attempted illegal filming using a camera under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, based on the victim teacher's statement.
Later, during a comprehensive review of cases involving police families by the Korean National Police Agency, suspicion arose that Inspector A destroyed evidence. The North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency's Women and Juvenile Crime Investigation Unit has been investigating whether Inspector A and his wife destroyed evidence.
Police determined that, under the special provision for family members, simple evidence destruction related to a family member's crime cannot be punished. However, if there were indications of instructing a family member to destroy evidence or otherwise abetting the destruction, it could be punishable, so they investigated that aspect as well.
Police said they checked Inspector A's phone, the in-house messenger, and the investigation team's call records, but found no indication that fellow officers helped destroy evidence or that Inspector A advised other family members to do so.
However, viewing it as inappropriate conduct for a police officer, the police plan to proceed with separate disciplinary action against Inspector A.