A former intern at Asan Medical Center  (AMC) was sentenced to one year and a half in prison on Thursday for sexually harassing a patient under anesthesia during surgery in 2019. It was the first trial and the intern was arrested immediately after the ruling. 

The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced the 35-year-old former intern, surnamed Lee, who worked at the AMC’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, to one year and six months in prison for sexual harassment. 

The court also ordered him to receive 40 hours of sexual violence treatment program and banned him from getting employed at any organization related to children, adolescents, and people with disability for five years. 

“Although colleague doctors stopped him at the operating room, Lee repeatedly touched the victim’s body,” the court said. “Lee recognized that his actions could be viewed as indecent but repeated the same act. So, it is judged that he intentionally committed sexual harassment.” 

The court noted that the victim was under anesthesia lying on the operating table, fully entrusting her life and body to surgeons out of “absolute trust.”

Sexually molesting such a vulnerable patient was a serious violation of the victim’s rights and dignity, and “the nature of Lee’s crime was not good,” the court added. 

After the first ruling, Lee said he had nothing to say. 

Lee was accused of sexually molesting a female patient, who was waiting for surgery under anesthesia, in April 2019 when Lee was working as an intern at the AMC’s ob-gyn department.  

The intern reportedly said that he wanted to “keep touching” the victim patient’s body during surgery. 

The police began investigating the case in April 2020 and the prosecution sought three years in prison in 2021. 

The ruling of the first trial was supposed to come out in January but was delayed after Lee replaced his lawyers right before the verdict and applied for a fact-finding inquiry with the Korean Medical Association to claim that his acts aimed to “treat the patient.”