Ruminations in Korea

Here are a few comments I had on this article from the Joongang Daily:

U.S. doctor faces charges of abuse

Korean and U.S. military policy are investigating an American physician who works at the U.S. Army’s 121 General Hospital at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul on charges of sexual molestation of his stepchild.

When I started reading this article, my first thought was, “Why is this article in the paper, when other stories of sexual abuse in military families are never reported in the news papers.”  In about a microsecond, I guessed that a Korean was somehow involved.

The Yongsan Police Precinct said yesterday it had called Dr. Lance May in for questioning Friday at the request of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. The U.S. 8th Army’s chief public affairs officer, Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan, confirmed yesterday that the U.S. military is conducting an investigation into Dr. May because of allegations of misconduct. He declined to provide further details.

Reading this paragraph I bit my lip over the never-ending Korean media practice of not stating the names of Korean suspects, but publishing the full names of foreign suspects.  If the press is going to protect the identity of Korea suspects, the same standard should be attributed to foreigners.  But we know that it likely never to happen.

Korean police said Dr. May and his wife had adopted the child last April through a Korean law firm. In November, the police said, Dr. May had attended a drug rehabilitation center in the United States and told officials there of a predilection [sic] toward pedophilia. They added that Dr. May’s wife had also told investigators about suspicions that her husband had abused their child.

There we have it.  The Korean connection; an adopted Korean child.  There is the reason why this story made it to the papers.  I have many problems with publishing the name of a person accused of molesting his or her child prior to a guilty verdict or guilty plea.  One problem is that it is easy to identify the child when publishing the name of the parent.  What level of protection or anonymity does the press owe the alleged victim?  Another problem is that if the accusations turn out to be false, the accused’s life is essentially over, as that person will be forever the subject of suspicion and always be watched.

The police, again quoting U.S. officials, said Dr. May had made a written statement after his return to Korea admitting to that abuse.

At this stage, there is not a confirmed confession or a guilty plea or verdict.  There is only hearsay that a confession was made.

I have, unfortunately, been exposed to thee horrible sides of child molestation.  My parents had numerous foster children in our home over the space of twenty or twenty-five years.  Many of them were victims of sexual abuse by a parent or step-parent.  So, I have seen the devastating effects of such horrible abuse on a child.

I have also had someone very close to me falsely accused of sexually abusing an adopted child.  The accuser was, incidentally, sexually abused by a parent prior to being adopted at around age 8.  The abuse came some 5 or 6 years after the adoption.  The apparent reason for the accusation was that she didn’t like the rules, regulations, and discipline that were being placed upon her by the adoptive parents.  It seems that she knew that she could find sympathy and be the center of attention if she made the accusation.  So, she ran away from her home and went to a house quite a way down the road from hers.  She made the accusation.  What she didn’t know was that the person she made the accusation was a decades-long friend of her adoptive father.  Despite knowing the accused for years, they still took the girl in and at showed concern at her story.  This situation was eventually resolved, but not without much anger, shame, and humiliation on the part of the accused.  I have seen the devastating effects of being falsely accused of sexually abusing a child.

I have also been close to someone who was convicted of sexually abusing a step-child.  A foster child who lived with us for seven or eight years from high-school until well into his twenties, married a woman that had several children from a previous marriage.  As I was in Korea when the arrest and conviction took place, I don’t know the complete story.  However, what I do know is quite sick enough.  Without getting into gory details, it seems that his wife may have had an affair or something like that.  Whatever the reason, he decided to take his revenge against her on one of her daughters who I believe was six years old at that time.  He was convicted in 1989 and is still doing time.  I believe that he is up for parole in a year or two, perhaps even this year.

At the time of conviction, the needs of the many to protect their children from the abuser outweighs the need to protect the identity of the abused.  Accordingly, the name of the abuse needs to be made known to the public.  After a conviction, the name of the abuser should be shouted from the mountain tops, published wherever possible, and everyone living anywhere near the abuser should be advised of his crime and punishment.  I do not believe that a pedophile can be rehabilitated. 

In conclusion, I believe that it is improper for the Korean media to publish the names of foreign suspects while not publishing the names of Korean suspects.  I believe it is even more improper to publish the name a person accused of sexually abusing his own child because of the effect it could have on the child and on the suspect if the charges are later proven unfounded.  However, if someone is convicted of sexually molesting a child, especially their own child, adoptive or otherwise, the person’s name should be published in the papers and shouted from the rooftops.  Anyone living anywhere near the person should be informed and warned, and the convicted person should be nailed to a wall.