A man in his 20s who lied about being a woman and entered a bathhouse

A man in his 20s who lied about being a woman and entered a bathhouse has reportedly been sentenced to prison.

I read through several articles about the case and put together my own summary.

First of all, A had already received a juvenile protection disposition for a sexual offense in 2016.
If we say that we shouldn’t judge someone with a criminal record or a prior offense through biased eyes,

then are we supposed to look at someone who has never done anything wrong as a perfectly normal person?

That is what makes sense, right?

These days, there are some people who seem to view the vast majority of ordinary men as walking potential criminals, and that got me a little worked up.

Anyway, let’s continue.

Then, on April 12, 2025, he blatantly entered a sauna in Jung-gu, Daegu.
If the counter employee mistakenly let him in, I think it’s fair to assume that he either dressed as a woman or did something that made the employee believe he was a woman.

He stayed there for about an hour,
watching naked women.

He was then put on trial for this incident.

Before a verdict had even been handed down in that case,

he committed the same type of crime again on November 23, 2025.
He did it while his first case was still being tried.

Apparently, he had been indicted without being detained.

This time,
he changed the location to a sauna in Dong-gu, Daegu.

And this time, he spent a whopping three hours and 20 minutes watching naked women.

And today, September 14, 2026,
Judge Kim Mi-kyung of the Eighth Single-judge Criminal Division of the Daegu District Court
sentenced him to eight months in prison for the two incidents of entering women’s bathhouses.
He was also ordered to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program and was prohibited from working at institutions related to children, adolescents, and people with disabilities for three years.

The charge was a violation of Article 12 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes: entering a place of public use for a sexual purpose.

Now, if A does not appeal,
he will serve his sentence under this judgment.

Well… considering that he committed another offense while he was already on trial, and that about ten months passed between the second offense and today’s verdict, should we be thanking A for not committing any more crimes during that time?

I hope he has truly turned over a new leaf.

I’m not saying he should have been detained and indicted.

Perhaps that wasn’t even possible.

Ah, by ‘detained and prosecuted,’
I mean being put behind bars before the trial even begins.

Apparently, detention and prosecution are used when the suspect has no fixed residence,
there is a risk of destroying evidence,
there is a risk of flight,
or when the crime is serious enough that detention is considered necessary to prevent further offenses and protect the victims.

According to the data, only about 0.2% of all people indicted are prosecuted while detained.

The most famous example would probably be the case of Jung Myung-seok, the JMS leader, in 2022.

Is this perhaps the kind of case that makes you think,
‘Ah, so this is what it takes to be detained and prosecuted.’?

Jung Myung-seok’s case is also unusual in that, through an additional indictment, his first trial continued for 14 months.
There is quite a lot to look at in that case.

It’s worth looking into.

I don’t know whether it’s JMS or JYP,

but you can’t exactly complain, ‘Why didn’t they do that and prevent him from peeping again? Waaah!’
The important thing to remember is that, while the first case was being tried, nobody knew that A would commit another offense.

At the time, it was simply a trial involving Sexual Offender No. 1, who had been sitting inside a women’s bathhouse and looking at naked women.

Considering that there are plenty of other truly horrifying crimes out there,
you can understand it as a case that apparently did not warrant locking him behind bars before trial.

There wasn’t much that could be done about it.

Well, at least there is some good news.

I’m sorry to the people who exposed their naked bodies to A,

but at least the crime didn’t develop into something more serious.

It is a little disappointing that he isn’t getting an electronic ankle monitor, though.

I would have liked to know whether he goes to a sauna again after getting out,
and whether he finally manages to walk into the men’s bathhouse like he’s supposed to.