SEOUL– The military police have arrested an Air Force service member on charges of sexually assaulting a female subordinate between January and April this year, a civic group said Tuesday.
The 44-year-old warrant officer at the Air Force’s 15th Special Activity Wing was accused of groping the shoulders and the feet of the female technical sergeant in her 20s on the pretext of a massage, the Center for Military Human Rights Korea said.
He also allegedly lifted her top to administer cupping therapy against her will and forced her to drink a beverage left by a COVID-19-positive male technical sergeant, eventually causing her to test positive for the virus, according to the civic group.
The warrant officer also verbally abused her, telling her “I want to hear you say ‘I love you'” or “I want you to break up with your boyfriend.”
The military police booked and arrested the warrant officer for investigation in April upon the victim’s report of the case to the Air Force’s gender equality center the same month, according to the civic group.
The sexual harassment marks the latest in a series of recent abuse cases involving the Air Force.
Lee Ye-ram, a female master sergeant affiliated with the 20th Fighter Wing, killed herself in late May 2021 after claiming she was sexually abused by a male colleague of the same rank.
Last month, a 21-year-old technical sergeant, surnamed Kang, was found dead in her official residence in the 20th Fighter Wing in Seosan, some 120 kilometers southwest of Seoul, leaving behind a suspected suicide note suggesting she may have been bullied by a superior.
The civic group accused the military of mishandling the sexual abuse case, pointing out it failed to provide proper protection for the victim so as to let the warrant officer coerce and threaten her to drop the case through a mobile messenger before his arrest.
Source: Yonhap News Agency