South Korean employer sentenced to 3 years for assaulting worker with air gun

A metal cleaning company owner in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, has been sentenced to three years in prison for causing severe injury to a Thai national worker using an industrial air gun.

According to the Suwon District Court, the defendant, a man in his 60s, inserted the nozzle of an industrial air gun into the 40-year-old victim's anus and discharged high-pressure air for approximately seven to eight seconds in February. The assault resulted in a 10cm traumatic rectal perforation, requiring emergency surgery.

The court rejected the defendant's claims that the incident was a joke or that the nozzle was not inserted. Judges noted that the defendant continued the air discharge even after the victim expressed pain, laughed during the incident, and attempted to cover up the crime by urging the victim to leave the country immediately following the medical emergency.

Additional aggravating factors included the defendant deducting medical expenses from the victim's wages and committing separate acts of physical aggression against other foreign workers. While a settlement was reached with the victim, the court determined the severity of the crime warranted a prison sentence.