Angry protesters threw eggs and shouted insults when one of South Korea’s most notorious child predators was released from a prison in southern Seoul on Saturday after a 12 year jail term.
Police officers tied 69-year-old Cho Doo-Soon with an electronic anklet and escorted him to his home in nearby Ansan, where the authorities installed an upgraded surveillance camera system and promised to monitor the predator 24 hours a day. Locals fear that he’s still a risk to their community.
Cho was convicted of kidnapping and raping an 8-yr-old girl in a brutal assault in a church toilet in Ansan in 2008, which left her seriously and permanently injured. The case shocked and appalled the nation and generated much public sympathy for the young girl, which inspired a 2013 film called Hope.
Approximately one million people have signed several online petitions to the president since 2017 in which they opposed Cho’s release, something that residents of Ansan had feared for years.
Dozens of demonstrators, holding signs saying “Cho Doo, Soon To Hell” and shouting slogans demanding his castration or execution, gathered outside the prison for hours early Saturday morning with a strong police presence on site. Police dispersed some protesters who were temporarily blocking a road to the prison by lying down and blocking it, which appeared to delay Cho’s release by about half an hour.
Protesters threw eggs and other items when a van carrying Cho and flanked by officers rolled out of the prison door at around 6:45am.
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