▲ This file photo shows Jeon Joo-hwan, 32, a former Seoul Metro employee accused of stalking and murdering a female colleague. (Yonhap)

subway murder-sentence

Life sentence given to man for stalking, murdering female co-worker at subway station restroom

SEOUL, July 11 (Yonhap) -- An appellate court sentenced a former employee of Seoul Metro to life in prison Tuesday for stalking a female co-worker and murdering her in a public restroom of a subway station last year.

The Seoul High Court gave the sentence to Jeon Joo-hwan, 32, on charges of stabbing the woman to death in the ladies' room at Sindang Subway Station in Seoul in September last year.

The killing took place a day before Jeon was set to face a court ruling on separate charges of stalking her on a total of 351 occasions, and illegally filming and blackmailing the victim in late 2021.

The two had known each other since they began to work for Seoul Metro, the operator of Seoul's subway system, in December 2018.

Jeon told police his crime was driven by resentment toward the victim after a nine-year prison sentence was demanded by prosecutors against him in the stalking case.

A district court had sentenced Jeon to 40 years in prison in the murder case. He was separately given an additional nine-year prison term in the stalking case.

The two cases have since been combined for an appellate ruling for which prosecutors had demanded capital punishment for Jeon.

The Seoul High Court on Tuesday delivered life imprisonment for Jeon, saying "The murder was committed in a very organized and thorough manner."

"In particular, no excuse can be taken into account as to the motive because he committed the additional horrendous crime while a trial was proceeding (in the stalking case) following the intervention of law enforcement authorities," the court said.

The court also ordered Jeon to wear an electric location monitoring device for 15 years.

The case against Jeon will be automatically referred to the Supreme Court for a final ruling, as a defendant given life imprisonment or a heavier sentence in a criminal case cannot by law give up his or her appeal.

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