SEOUL: A South Korean man has been sentenced to nine years in prison for stalking a woman he is accused of later killing in a high-profile case, which prompted outraged demands for legal reform.
The court found that Jeon Joo-hwan, 31, stalked and threatened his victim, a former colleague, on more than 300 separate occasions over a two-year period.
He was not detained because police deemed him low risk, even as he continued to harass the woman who had filed a second set of stalking charges against him earlier this year.
On Sep 14, a day before Jeon was due to be sentenced, he is accused of stabbing the woman to death in a public restroom at a subway station in central Seoul.
He told investigators that he was enraged by the legal problems his victim had caused him. He was fired from his job at the Seoul Metro where the victim was also working - after she initially reported him for stalking.
According to Yonhap, the Seoul Western District Court said in its verdict that we deliver a heavier sentence on the stalking charges because the victim was murdered.
The court ordered him to take 80 hours of stalking treatment classes and 40 hours of sexual assault prevention classes.
The defendant had murdered a victim after having submitted letters of apology to the court asking for clemency, it added.
Jeon will be tried and sentenced separately on murder charges, which he has not contested, telling reporters after he was arrested: I have done something really insane. The killing sent shock waves through South Korea and caused criticism that law enforcement had failed to protect the victim, despite her reporting of the man twice within six months.
South Korea introduced new laws aimed at combating stalking in 2021, but critics say the country's police and courts don't take such crimes seriously enough.
President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered authorities to work harder to prevent such crimes, acknowledging that the current legal framework appeared insufficient to protect victims.