A woman in her twenties who had consensual sex with a man she met through a mobile chat app, and then called 112 to report that he had threatened her to repay a debt and raped her six times, has been sentenced to one year in prison. A single-judge criminal division (Criminal Division 2) of the Chungju Branch of the Cheongju District Court recently handed down this sentence to Ms. A, who had been indicted without detention on a charge of false accusation.
The court found that the messenger conversations the two exchanged around the time of the incident were the natural conversations of lovers or friends, and that there were no signs of threats or a relationship of domination. On the contrary, it emerged that Ms. A had used the man's credit card beyond the purposes he had permitted and had taken 450,000 won in cash from his wallet. The man had only protested this and suggested they stop contacting each other; he had not demanded money. As reasons for the sentence, the court cited the facts that a rape conviction would carry heavy punishment, that merely being indicted for a sex crime severely damages one's social reputation, that Ms. A had continued to deny the offense without showing remorse, and that the victim had petitioned for severe punishment.
Although this is a first-instance judgment, it is worth looking at both why false accusation is treated so seriously and why a sex crime report that does not end in punishment does not automatically amount to false accusation.
1. What Kind of Crime Is False Accusation?
A. Elements and statutory penalty
Article 156 of the Criminal Act punishes a person who, for the purpose of subjecting another to criminal or disciplinary punishment, reports a false fact to a public office or public official, by imprisonment for not more than ten years or a fine not exceeding 15 million won. The elements can be summarized as three: the purpose of having the other person punished, a report to a public office such as an investigative agency, and the falsity of the reported content, meaning that it is contrary to objective truth.
False accusation is serious because it causes harm twice over. The person falsely reported loses his or her livelihood and reputation while going through investigation and trial, and the State wastes investigative resources on the wrong person. In particular, rape is a grave crime punishable under Article 297 of the Criminal Act by imprisonment for a limited term of at least three years, so a false sex crime report can shake the other person's entire life. The court's choice of a prison sentence in this case can be read as reflecting the weight it gave to this point.
B. The crime is complete the moment the report is received
The crime of false accusation is already complete when the false report reaches the investigative agency. Even if the person later changes his or her mind and withdraws the complaint or gets the written complaint back, the crime does not disappear.
Supreme Court Decision 84Do2215, February 8, 1985
When a complaint containing false content was submitted to a police officer, the report of false facts had already reached the investigative agency and the crime of false accusation was complete; therefore, getting the complaint back afterwards does not affect the establishment of the crime.
It is not uncommon for people to file a complaint in a fit of anger, thinking, "I can just withdraw it," but the law does not see it that way.
2. False Accusation Is Different from "Insufficient Evidence"
A. Falsity must be affirmatively proven
Conversely, the fact that a sex crime report ended in non-indictment or acquittal does not mean the person who reported it will immediately be punished for false accusation. Sex crimes often occur in spaces where only the two people are present, so a lack of evidence is common. "The crime could not be proven" and "the report was false" are entirely different matters.
B. The court's judgment
Supreme Court Decision 2018Do2614, July 11, 2019
The requirement that the reported fact be false must be affirmatively proven, and the mere fact that a report of sexual assault ended in non-indictment or an acquittal must not be used as affirmative grounds for false accusation to conclude that the report was false.
In this judgment, the Supreme Court also stated that a victim's way of responding should not be readily doubted on the basis of a standard of "what a genuine victim would surely have done." The point is that a report should not be branded as false merely because the person did not report right after the harm or kept in contact with the perpetrator.
C. Why false accusation was found in this case
This case was found to be false accusation not simply because the rape charge could not be proven. There was objective material, namely the messenger conversations at the time, that contradicted the core of the report, the threats and coercion, and it was even confirmed that the reporting party had used the other person's card and cash without authorization. A guilty verdict was reached because there was evidence affirmatively showing that the report was false.
3. What to Keep in Mind in Practice
A. If you have been falsely reported
The first thing to do is to preserve the objective materials from the time. Messenger conversations, call records, account and card transaction histories, and materials showing movements before and after the meeting are erased or become hard to obtain as time passes. Leaving a chat room or deleting records can actually work against you, so the mobile phone should be preserved as it is.
Statements made in the first interview follow you until the end of the case. If, out of a sense of injustice, you speak with certainty even about parts you do not remember, the credibility of your statement is shaken. Whether to file a complaint for false accusation after being cleared is a later question. As the precedent above shows, non-indictment or acquittal alone does not establish false accusation, so the decision should be made only with concrete material showing that the report was false.
B. If you intend to report actual harm
There is no reason to hesitate to report out of fear of a false accusation charge. If you truthfully reported what you experienced, the crime of false accusation is not established even if the result is non-indictment. However, adding facts that did not happen in order to have the other person punished more heavily is dangerous. Somewhat exaggerating the circumstances does not amount to false accusation, but fabricating key facts that determine whether a crime is established can constitute false accusation on that part alone. Recording conversations right after the harm, medical records, and when and what you told those around you is the surest way to support your statement.
C. If you have already made a false report
Article 157 of the Criminal Act applies Article 153 mutatis mutandis, providing that if a person who committed false accusation confesses or surrenders before the trial or disciplinary decision in the reported case becomes final, the punishment shall be reduced or remitted. Withdrawing the complaint alone does not erase the crime, but revealing the truth voluntarily before the judgment against the other person becomes final opens a way to greatly reduce the punishment. As time passes, the other person's harm grows and this opportunity disappears.
4. Closing Thoughts
False accusation does great harm in that it destroys a person's life and causes even the voices of genuine sex crime victims to be doubted. At the same time, we must guard against branding a reporter a liar merely because a sex crime report was not accepted. The courts require "affirmative proof" of falsity in order to protect both of these values. This judgment should be read as a signal that liability will be strictly pursued in cases where falsity is revealed by objective evidence, and it should not be taken in a way that discourages reports of harm themselves.
(Shin Dong-woo, Managing Partner, DAEON Law Firm)
Photo: Joe Gratz, CC0 (Flickr, Openverse)
2026. 10. 19. · By Attorney Dongwoo Shin
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