This grave sex crime shattered the trust within a family: the defendant, taking advantage of his niece having fallen asleep drunk, touched her body and attempted to rape her. The victim barely managed to resist and flee, and the crime remained an attempt, but because the perpetrator was a relative, the psychological trauma was extreme. After narrowly escaping sexual violation by her uncle by marriage, the victim suffered persistent anxiety and shame, and endured a pain that was difficult to speak of even within the family. The court found the defendant's conduct premeditated and despicable and, reflecting that the victim had not forgiven him and that her psychological harm was substantial, sentenced him to three years in prison, ordered him to complete a sexual violence treatment program, and barred him from employment at institutions serving children and juveniles and at welfare facilities for persons with disabilities for five years.

This case was more than a criminal matter; it was also a process of restoring the victim's dignity and the family's psychological stability. As the victim's representative, I prepared the criminal complaint from the outset by comprehensively organizing her statements, securing evidence, and documenting how the relationship of trust had collapsed, and throughout the trial I focused on conveying the victim's position to the court with precision. Because the perpetrator was a relative, the victim felt a heavy burden even in disclosing what had happened to outsiders, so I supported her in maintaining the consistency and credibility of her statements and responded firmly so that she would not be shaken by the defendant's attempts at settlement or pressure. At trial, I highlighted that the defendant showed no remorse and made no genuine attempt at making amends, steering the court toward a prison sentence, and emphasized that the victim's psychological trauma went beyond mere fear and amounted to a serious violation of her human rights. In grave sex crime cases like this, 'settlement' must be approached as strategically as 'sentence.' When victims negotiate on their own, they are all too often drawn into absurd terms or a resolution that favors the perpetrator; differences of tens of millions of won in settlement amounts alone are common. In this case, too, I secured strong punishment, protection for the victim, and a realistic settlement all at once, upholding to the end the standards that must be maintained in sex crime cases.