Rape allegation against airman in South Korea a complete lie
Well it was only a matter of time before something like this happened, although I’m sure it won’t be as widely reported. Stars & Stripes are now reporting that South Korea’s top news story about a woman who alleged an airman raped her was a complete fabrication. The full story below:
SEOUL - South Korea’s top news story on Thursday turned out to be a lie, after an 18-year-old South Korean woman told police she fabricated a story about an Osan airman raping her because she didn’t want to tell her mother she was having sex.
The woman initially told police during questioning Wednesday that the airman, also 18, raped her in a Seoul motel late Tuesday night.
She recanted that story during a second round of questioning late Thursday afternoon, said a police lieutenant for the Gangseo Police Station, identified as only as Yoon.
Police and U.S. military officials said the airman, a member of Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing, was detained, questioned and released Wednesday by Korean National Police, who found him in his motel room early that morning.
Yoon said the airman denied raping the woman and said he would have run away from the hotel if he had raped her.
According to South Korean media reports based on the woman’s initial statements, the pair had been chatting online and met face-to-face for the first time the night of the alleged rape.
The woman told police the airman asked her to find a motel for him in Seoul because he cannot speak Korean, according to the reports.
The woman reported the rape early Wednesday morning, after she came home, began bleeding from the pubic area and lost consciousness, Yoon said.
The womanfs mother called an ambulance, and during the ride to the hospital, the daughter regained consciousness and asked why she was going to the hospital.
When her mother described her symptoms, the daughter said she had been raped because she was afraid of being chastised, the spokesman said.
During questioning out of her mother’s presence on Thursday afternoon, the woman told police she had consensual sex with the airmen for the fourth time the night of the alleged rape.
The spokesman said he didn’t know if the woman, who is still in the hospital and is unemployed, would be charged for lying to police because the investigation into the incident has not been completed.
He didn’t know why she was bleeding, but said she had experienced those symptoms before.
South Korean police said the airman and the woman were both 19, but 7th Air Force officials said the pair were 18. A South Korean typically considers him or herself to be a year older than a Westerner born on the same date.
The fabricated rape in Seoul comes less than two weeks after an Okinawa-based Marine was accused of raping a local schoolgirl there, and the same week U.S. military officials in Okinawa announced they had detained an American soldier for another alleged rape.
Marine Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was arrested Feb. 10 for allegedly raping the 14-year-old Okinawan girl in his van after offering to drive her home.
Military officials in Okinawa began an around-the-clock “period of reflectionh” Wednesday morning that limits all U.S. military personnel, family members and Defense Department civilians to their bases.
The restriction covers Okinawa, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and Camp Fuji in mainland Japan, and will last indefinitely, Marine officials said Thursday.
U.S. Army officials on Okinawa announced Thursday they were holding a sergeant on suspicion of raping a 21-year-old Philippine sex worker at a hotel on Monday, but provided few other details.
The commander of Osanfs 51st Fighter Wing, Col. Jon Norman, had decided not to enact a curfew or off-base restrictions before he learned the South Korean woman had recanted her story, base officials said.
***********************************
Not saying that is what has happened here, but you shouldn’t always believe everything you see on TV! I wonder how many people had already condemned this airman before the truth came out? I doubt many of them who did will be so vocal now.
or Discuss this Article
