Footage Of Sexual Assault Attempt Caught On CCTV Terrifies Koreans, Now Under Investigation

A minute-long CCTV footage, titled the “Sinlim-dong Rape Attempt”, went viral on Twitter and its content completely terrified the public. It caused a huge outrage among Koreans, enough to create a petition asking for a heavy penalization of the person in the footage, and the case is now under police investigation.

Caption Translation: “(Here’s the footage of the Sinlim-dong Rapist) Things could have gone unacceptably wrong, had everything been a second late. Please report to the police if you see this man.”

In this video, released by a friend of the female who was “targeted”, a man is seen trying to break and enter the woman’s home – for reasons unknown, but accused to be for sexual assault. As soon as the woman walks in to her home, the man sneaks out from behind her and tries to grab the door.

The door shuts in time before the man could open it. He shakes on the door knob to see if it would open for him. He is then recorded knocking and checking the keypad for entry.

Throughout the rest of the video, he lingers in front of the door and hallway. The viewers were sickened by the behavior, of how he doesn’t leave immediately after the failed attempt but seems to be trying to figure out his way in somehow.

The police has begun investigating the case, based on the woman’s report and the CCTV footage. The man, now identified as Mr. Cho, eventually turned himself in once he realized he got caught on camera. Mr. Cho is currently being investigated only for an attempt of breaking and entering, because there is no solid evidence that it was an attempt of sexual assault. The police assured the public, however, that Mr. Cho will be investigated thoroughly to see if he had any ulterior motive to his actions, such as sexually assaulting the woman. The police also shared Mr. Cho is pleading that he doesn’t “remember what happened” because he was under the influence of alcohol.

Meanwhile, the police is receiving some criticism for being reluctant in its reaction to the case. According to an inside associate, the woman in the video actually called the police twice to report suspicious activity. The first was immediately after the incident, when she reported of “someone ringing the doorbell”. A couple hours later, once the woman in the video retrieved the CCTV footage from the building landlord, she called in again to report what had actually happened. She and her friend then uploaded the video to social media, and two more hours past the footage having gone viral on the internet, the police actively picked up on investigating the case. Reportedly, the Sinlim-dong area police station was yet to acquire the original CCTV footage, until the woman in the video herself provided it for evidence.

Further revealed from the investigation, and other CCTV footages from around the neighborhood, is that Mr. Cho seemed to have “targeted” the woman in the video from blocks away from her house. He is spotted in multiple CCTVs, following the woman. With this bit of new information, a large group of netizens also remain discontent with the fact that Mr. Cho is only being investigated for the case of breaking and entering.

Once the case caught the public attention, concerned netizens shared their thoughts on the issue. Many were relieved by the fact that the female in the footage wasn’t harmed and that the entire act was caught on camera for investigation – but at the same time, many were terrified of what could have happened if the door closed a second late. The Blue House petition, titled “Please Heavily Penalize the Man in Sinlim-dong Sexual Assault Attempt Case”, created to appeal for non-leniency in his trial, is now at almost 55K signatures.