Friday, July 18, 2014

'Quincy Black' gets two and a half years in prison

You may remember Quincy Black, the English teacher working at the Dajeon International Communication Center who caused a media and internet firestorm back in October 2010 when videos of himself having sex with two Korean women which he uploaded to foreign porn sites were discovered by Korean netizens. He ended up being fired and leaving the country (and causing his employer some grief as their 'morality' was questioned) before it was discovered one of the girls was underage. He was extradited from Armenia in late January this year and on February 12 the Seoul Central District Court indicted and detained him on charges of producing a video of him having sex with an underage girl.

Yesterday, as the Joongang Ilbo reports, he was sentenced to prison:
Quincy Black sentenced to prison for spreading video of sex with high school girl

A foreign English instructor who spread videos on the internet of sex with Korean women including a high school girl under the name 'Quincy Black ' has been sentenced to prison.

On July 17 the Seoul Central District Court sentenced foreign English instructor C (29), who had been charged with contravening the Law for the protection of children and youth by producing and distributing pornography) to two years and six months in prison was ordered to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program.

The court's judgement said that "C committed a crime when, as a native speaking English instructor who taught elementary school students, he was in a position to protect youths, and by spreading the pornography he inflicted considerable psychological schock upon the victim."

The judgement listed as reasons for the sentence that "the underage victim in the incident found daily life difficult and moved overseas, while the adult victim wished for C to be punished."

Before the trial C protested that "the video was filmed with the consent of the underage victim" but the court did not accept this, saying that "the victim's feeling uncomfortable during the shooting of the video is valid."

C was charged for videoing sex with high school student A, who he met via a Korean dating site, with a camera and uploading the video to an overseas porn site in late August 2010. C invited A to the lodging provided for him by the Dajeon International Center and after drinking alcohol he filmed their sex using four cameras installed in his room.

Among those victimized by C was an adult woman who did not give her consent to be videoed.

After his criminal activity was discovered, C left Korea and went to China, and early this year was arrested in Armenia and was transferred to Korea for trial according to an extradition convention.
There are about 25 articles reporting on this story, including my favourite from a couple hours ago by the Kyunghyang Sinmun, which opens like this:
Elementary school instructor by day, sex criminal by night
The two-faced native speaking instructor 
A native speaking teacher who taught elementary school students who had sex with a female student who was only 15 and videoed it has been sentenced to prison. The native speaking instructor committed the crime and continued to openly teach English classes to elementary school students.
I almost miss this kind of writing. There's been very little of this kind of article this year, and none in the last three and a half months. More than half of the negative articles about foreign teachers have been related to Quincy Black, with the rest revolving around a drug bust in Daegu in January and the drug arrest of a Korean citizen native speaker in Daejeon in April.

If Quincy Black's sentence seems light, the Kyunghyang Sinmun states that one reason for the relatively lax sentence is that he deposited 9 million won for his victims.

5 comments:

King Baeksu said...

Let's not forget that 15 years old in Korean age could be as young as 13 or 14 in Western years. Statutory rape, especially when it involves someone so young, definitely warrants at least a couple of years in the slammer.

I wonder why the victim had to go overseas. Evidently she did not find much support among her classmates and friends. Sad.

This case invites comparison with the Sewol tragedy, as far as assigning ultimate blame is concerned. Clearly the government authorities failed to properly enforce the numerous regulations that were being ignored by Chonghaejin Marine Company. In a similar way, one wonders when South Korea's education authorities will only allow properly trained and credentialed non-Koreans to teach EFL in local classrooms?

As the saying goes, pay peanuts and get monkeys. Only fools would expect otherwise, which raises an interesting question: Why the hell are fools working at the Education Ministry?

Doesn't seem very smart to me!

Anonymous said...

I'm a little confused about the exact charges sorry, given that the Korean age of consent is 13. Was it illegally producing and distributing porn? Doing so without her consent? Involving a minor (minor in terms of adult entertainment work that is)? All 3?

Can anyone please clarify?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I see you already answered that in your post. Please feel free to delete my comments.

Will wisely go get a second cup of coffee...



King Baeksu said...

From Wikipedia:

"According to Section 305 of the Criminal Law of the Republic of Korea, a person who engages in sexual intercourse with a female minor, but not a male minor, who did not yet and will not turn the Western age (as opposed to the Korean age reckoning) of 13 in the year the event has occurred is guilty of rape and shall be fined and or punished by penal labor for the duration that exceeds 3 years (the Criminal Law specifically states to punish a person who raped a female minor or adult, which means engaging in a voluntary or involuntary sexual intercourse with a male minor or adult is not a Criminal Law definition of rape in either case.)

"However, the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse, created in 2011, supersedes Section 305 of the Criminal Law. According to the ACT ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND JUVENILES FROM SEXUAL ABUSE, a person is a minor until January 1 of the year in which he or she will turn 19 (this is also the day on which he or she is considered 20 years old by Korean age reckoning). The punishment is penal labor for a term of not less than 5 years. According to Article 7 Verse 5 of the ACT ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND JUVENILES FROM SEXUAL ABUSE, if a person engages in sexual intercourse with a juvenile by force or deception, it is considered rape. The phrase "by force" is an ambiguous translation of Korean word wi-ryeok (위력). According to Supreme Court precedents, the word wi-ryeok means: being physically stronger, or being older, or having more money, or being a government employee, or having anything that can put a person in a better position than a juvenile. For example, if a person who is older than a juvenile engages in a sexual intercourse with the juvenile, it is considered rape."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Asia#South_Korea

King Baeksu said...

I hear Quincy Black already has a prison-memoir book deal, tentatively titled, "The Real Brother One Cell."