⁠⁠Forced to call him 'Dad': The trial over sexual abuse in a disabled care home that has shocked South Korea

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Forced to call him 'Dad': The trial over sexual abuse in a disabled care home that has shocked South Korea
- Published
"I was hurting inside, so I came to tell my story."
These were Seo Mi-hyeon's first words to the police.
Seo, who has an intellectual disability, struggles to form long sentences and can only communicate through brief words and gestures. But her memories of the abuse inflicted upon her were clear.
She was one of three residents at a state-run care home in South Korea who were sexually assaulted by the home's director, in a case that has shocked the country and raised serious questions about state care for the disabled.
Earlier this month, a court in Seoul sentenced the director - who has only been identified by his surname Kim - to 15 years in prison. Kim is appealing the conviction.
The court had heard that some residents were made to call the director "Dad", which prosecutors said illustrated the unequal relationship between Kim and those in his care.
The ruling came nearly two years after Seo, who is in her 40s, first disclosed the abuse to her mother.
We have changed Seo's name and the names of another victim in this story to protect their identities.
'I just endured it'
Seo first began living in Saekdongwon, a care home for the intellectually disabled, in 2016.
The institute, located in the city of Incheon, is fully subsidised by the state and still houses some 33 residents, although it has been asked to close down in light of this case.
According to Seo, the abuse began shortly after she began living there, with Kim visiting her at night or in the early hours of the morning to rape her.
Speaking through her lawyer Ko Eun-young, Seo said there was no adult at the facility she could speak to about the abuse, adding that she felt that other staff members would not help her. The care home has not responded to this allegation.
That was her life for almost 10 years, until the case came to light in February 2025, when Seo suffered a head injury.
She said it happened one of the times Kim tried to sexually assault her. She had blocked him with her hands, causing him to throw a glass at her.
Her lawyer told the court that the care home took Seo to hospital and informed her mother about the incident only after the wound on her head had been stitched up.
According to Seo's lawyer, Seo's mother had asked to see CCTV footage to establish how her daughter had been injured, but the facility refused, saying they were not authorised to release it.
As a result, her mother brought her home and decided to withdraw her from the facility. It was only after Seo was told that she would not have to return to the home that she disclosed the sexual abuse to her mum, who then reported it to the police.
"I thought it was safe to speak because I was told I didn't have to go back to Saekdongwon," Seo told the BBC via her lawyer.
When asked how she had managed on her own for so many years, she said: "I just endured it."
A police investigation into Seo's account was then widened to other residents.
They found at least two other alleged victims, including Lee Mi-Na, who said that she was also raped by Kim.
Earlier this month, a judge found all three victims' testimony credible.
He was sentenced to 15 years in jail for raping Lee and Seo, five years less than the original sentence prosecutors were asking for. He has denied all allegations and has since appealed the ruling.
For the third victim, Kim was found guilty of a lesser charge of sexual violence, with the judge saying the charge of rape against her was dropped as they could not find conclusive evidence that "force or threats [were used] that rendered the victim unable to resist".
A joint response committee made up of disability rights and other civic groups have criticsed this ruling, saying a victim's ability to resist an assault should not impact the verdict they receive.
The committee has also criticised the investigation process, saying there was a failure to identify more potential victims.
In November last year, following the initial allegations of abuse, local authorities from Ganghwa County had commissioned a team from Woosuk University to conduct an in-depth assessment of Saekdongwon's residents.
The report, which was submitted to the court as evidence, found indications that many more residents - at least 10 - could have been sexually assaulted by Kim.
But during the trial, the court did not address this finding.
According to local media reports, police had struggled to establish details of alleged abuse when interviewing residents, because most of them had severe disabilities and faced difficulties communicating. Some residents reportedly gave answers unrelated to the questions or did not respond at all.
Kim has not responded to allegations that he may have abused more residents.
Jeon Ji-su, the professor who led the Woosuk research team, told the BBC that investigators had accepted "only the accounts of people who could describe the abuse in complete sentences".
But activists said that this reliance on verbal testimony meant the police failed to recognise residents with greater communication difficulties as victims.
"If victims express their experiences differently from the way we expect, shouldn't the state make a greater effort to hear their voices?" said Baek In-seong, of Hansahoe, a counselling centre for survivors of sexual violence with disabilities.
Police have said that "while there may have been shortcomings in individual instances, these should not be taken as representative of the investigation as a whole".
Rights groups have also criticised others who have sought leniency for Kim.
Ahead of the verdict, a total of 13 petitions seeking leniency were said to have been submitted to the court. One of them, from a social welfare organisation, asked the court to take into account the defendant's "contribution to the welfare sector".
Welfare advocacy group Gyeol condemned the petitioning organisations, saying: "Past service in the welfare sector does not exempt anyone from accountability."
The judge's ruling on Kim's conviction stated that his offence was "particularly reprehensible" because "despite his professional duty to protect and support [the victims'] rights and interests and prevent abuse, he exploited the imbalance of power" with his victims to "gratify his own sexual desires".
Public scrutiny and protests
The case has shocked many in South Korea and raised questions about why the abuse was not prevented in the first place. More shocking is that it happened despite a move in 2011 to strengthen laws to protect people with disabilities from sexual assault.
That was the year a fictional film called Dogani, based on a true story of sexual abuse at a school for deaf children, premiered. Amid intense public scrutiny and protests, the school in question was shut and tougher laws were passed as a result.
These included more specific categories of sexual offences against disabled people, harsher penalties for offences committed by facility directors and employees, and the removal of the statute of limitations for some rape offences involving disabled victims.
But in the case of Saekdongwon, the abuse persisted despite regular regular inspections by Ganghwa County, the local authority responsible for overseeing the facility.
A county official told the BBC that such inspections focused largely on paperwork, and that residents were interviewed only when specific issues arose.
The official said there had also been an external monitoring team but it had received no reports from staff, and expressed regret that the authorities had not examined the situation more closely.
Jo Ha, a representative from the national council of a counselling centre who has supported some Saekdongwon victims, said some families she had spoken to had suspected there was abuse but felt unable to raise their concerns.
Leaving a facility would mean the family has to take on all care responsibilities, as finding alternative placements is difficult.
One survey conducted through a national association of parents of people living in residential facilities for those with disabilities found that around six in 10 people who secured a place in a residential facility had waited at least three years, highlighting the difficulty of accessing appropriate care.
Professor Kim Yoon-tae, the head of Woosuk University's Institute of Cognitive Science, points out that such facilities exercise great control over residents' actions, from what they eat to where they sleep in addition to their access to healthcare and even whether or not to grant they could go outside.
And while Saekdongwon is "a landmark case" because of the scale and duration of the abuse, it is also not an isolated incident, added Jo.
In 2023, an appeals court upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a worker who raped or sexually assaulted two women with intellectual disabilities at a facility in Yeongcheon the previous year.
In a separate case in Anseong, a care home worker was recently sentenced to six years in prison for repeatedly raping a female resident with a disability in 2022.
"The violence women with disabilities experience is not an individual problem," Jo said. "It is structural violence, shaped by overlapping layers of gender, disability, institutionalisation, poverty and social isolation."
- South Korea jails care home head for sexually assaulting disabled residents 
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'We want to live in peace'
Since the case came to light, South Korea's prime minister has ordered the formation of a cross-government response team, calling the incident "a grave matter that calls into question the very reason for the state's existence".
In April, the government said it had inspected 1,507 residential facilities for disabled people nationwide and identified 33 suspected cases of abuse. So far investigations have been opened into eight of them.
The government also said it would strengthen targeted inspections based on risk factors, as well as joint inspections involving local authorities, police and disability rights advocacy agencies.
Ganghwa County has ordered Saekdongwon to close and the local government has revoked the licence of the foundation that operated it.
However, the closure has been deferred until the remaining residents have been relocated and arrangements for independent living have been completed.
The local government has said it will draw up individual independent-living support plans for all 33 Saekdongwon residents. That process is still under way.
Saekdongwon has filed an administrative lawsuit challenging the revocation of its licence. It has yet to comment on Kim's conviction.
Asked what had changed most since leaving Saekdongwon, Seo said: "I just feel at peace. I'm happy every day."
She also said the best thing was being able to eat and sleep when she wanted.
What she wanted most now was "to cut ties with the director completely and never have anything to do with him again".
But, Seo added, people with disabilities still need somewhere they could feel safe.
"I hope there can be a facility without sexual violence, where disabled people like us can live in peace."

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