In Incheon, a director of a state‑run residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities was sentenced to 15 years in prison after victims revealed sustained sexual assault. The allegations, which began shortly after one resident moved into the home in 2016, were only made public in February 2025 following a serious head injury sustained during an assault.
Three residents – all monitored by the state – testified that the director repeatedly visited them at night to commit rape. The director was also described by prosecutors as having forced some residents to address him as “Dad,” underscoring an abuse of power.
During a Seoul court hearing, witnesses spoke through their lawyers because many residents struggled to communicate. The court accepted these accounts as credible, sentencing the director to 15 years—five years less than the prosecutor’s requested term—while a third victim received a lesser charge due to lack of evidence of force.
Advocacy groups condemned the lower sentencing and the court’s failure to acknowledge potential additional victims identified in an independent review that estimated at least ten residents may have been assaulted.
The case prompted the South Korean Prime Minister to convene a cross‑government task force. By April, national authorities had inspected 1,507 facilities and opened investigations into eight of the 33 suspected abuse sites identified in a preliminary survey.
Local officials in Ganghwa County revoked the care home’s licence and ordered its closure, though the closure is pending the relocation of residents and the completion of independent‑living support plans.
Voices from disability rights groups emphasize that such incidents are not isolated but part of structural violence that combines gender, disability, institutionalisation, poverty, and social isolation. The South Korean government has pledged tougher penalties for facility directors and officials, and a removal of the statute of limitations for certain rape offences involving disabled victims.
