3 hours next to pervert on bus: 'I still retch thinking about it'

A woman had to endure three hours inside a bus next to a male stranger flashing his genitalia while traveling from Busan to Jeonju in January. Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

A woman who had to endure three hours on a bus sitting next to a pervert said she is still traumatized by the experience even after a month.

The woman, whose name and age are being withheld, has been seeing a psychiatrist and taking medication, according to the local Chosun Ilbo daily, but the trauma from the Jan. 23 incident hasn't been mitigated. She said she sometimes retches even thinking about it.

She was on a bus in Busan that was leaving for Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, at about 10 a.m. A man got in about five minutes after her and sat at the window seat next to her. There were no empty seats.

The nightmare trip began when she heard the announcement to fasten her seatbelt. As she fastened hers, she saw the man unzipping his pants and taking out his genitalia. She was shocked, but did not show any reaction, fearing that he would harm her.

When the bus reached a rest stop about halfway to Jeonju, she got off the bus and waited, trying to change her seat when she got back on. But she couldn't because there were no empty seats. She took her seat next to him again, and he continued exposing himself.

She entered a message in her mobile device and handed it to a person behind her while hoping the pervert wouldn't notice. The person behind her took the phone and saw what she wrote: "the man next to me is flashing and I want to record proof but I am too afraid. Please do it for me."

The plan worked and she received back the phone with a video record of the man. Then she texted police to report what was happening.

The pervert didn't stop until the end of the trip in Jeonju, where police officers were waiting for him at the city bus terminal.

She said she couldn't leave her seat for a while after the bus arrived because she couldn't feel her legs.

After the police charged him with public indecency and sent the case to the prosecution on Feb. 3, she said she was disappointed because she expected he would get at least a sexual harassment charge.

"It wasn't merely public indecency because his misconduct directly targeted me," she said.

She cited another case she heard about recently, in which a different man who had exposed himself behind a female high school student sitting at a bus stop was charged with sexual harassment. She said the same punishment must be doled out to her harasser.

The woman also said police didn't accept her request for protection following the incident because they believed he wouldn't harm her since he didn't know her personally. However, officers said she made no such request.

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