Pro ‘Overwatch’ Player Gets 1 Year in Jail for Molesting a Sleeping Child in Korea
By Bryan Ke
September 14, 2020
A professional “Overwatch” player has received a one-year jail sentence for sexually abusing a child while she was asleep.
The case: Yoon “Fr3e” Tae-in was charged for sexual abuse last year after he forcibly touched a child while she was sleeping, according to Yonhap News via Dexerto.
- Yoon was sentenced by Judge Lee Jeong-min to a year in jail and ordered to complete a 40-hour sexual violence program.
- Although he told the victim he did not partake in “skinship,” or bonding through physical contact, his lawyer claimed the encounter to be a “crime of love” when he apparently saw the victim’s arm out when she fell asleep.
- The court did not accept Yoon’s lawyer’s argument about the age difference between Yoon and the child not being great enough to warrant a punishment.
- However, Judge Lee explained Yoon inflicted a “secondary damage” when he molested the victim while she was sleeping, which makes the one-year sentence more than warranted.
- In Korea, sexual harassment was described as a similar concept with sexual violence, sexual abuse, and sexual flirtation, according to a study on the “Concept of Power Relation in Sexual Harassment.”
Other details: Last year, a Twitter thread detailing some of the events that happened was shared online — and translated — by Twitter user @gatamchun.
- In a follow-up tweet, the user shared a screenshot of the conversation the victim had with Yoon where she said, “I showed up because you promised not to touch me, and then you touched me in my sleep.” Yoon only replied with “sorry”.
- Yoon was signed to North American team Meta Skyfoxes as an off-tank player when the accusations started to surface. However, he was quickly dropped after the team began their investigation, Dot Esports reported.
- Despite the allegations, Korean organization Oz Gaming took the player in, insisting they “listened only to the player’s side of events” and “perceived the incident as a misunderstanding during the relationship,” without launching their own investigations.
- Last Thursday, Oz Gaming issued a statement apologizing to the fans and promised to do better in the future after Yoon was officially convicted.
- He apologized to the victim and her parents and accepted the judge’s sentence.
Featured Image via @OW_FR3E
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