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Gyeonggi Province after donating some of the compensation money he received for having been framed in the 2007 death of a homeless girl in Suwon

By Hong Yong-deok, South Gyeonggi correspondent

On May 9, a caller to the Gyeonggi Province Teen Counseling Welfare Center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, told Lim Nak, 41, the head counselor, that she would donate 6 million won (US$5,856) to the welfare center. “Mr. Lim, thanks for believing in us,” the caller said. “We want you to use the money for young people like us who feel lost or have financial problems.”

The caller was a girl surnamed Kang, one of four teenage runaways who were framed as the culprits in the death of a homeless girl in Suwon in 2007 and spent a year in prison despite their innocence. Lim had counseled Kang during her periodic visits to the center.

The Suwon homeless girl case began on May 14, 2007, with the discovery of the body of a 15-year-old girl surnamed Kim who had run away from a Suwon high school. The police and prosecutors arrested five homeless young people, including Kang, as suspects in the case. With the exception of a 13-year-old who was too young to prosecute, the other four teenagers were convicted of inflicting injury causing death and sentenced to two to four years in prison by the lower court. But the Seoul High Court, and then the Supreme Court in 2010, found the four teenagers not guilty, clearing their names.

In Jan. 2014, Seoul High Court decided that the defendants should be paid around 219 million won (US$213,744) in compensation for the year that they had been unjustly imprisoned. After receiving this money recently, Kang and the other three defendants decided to donate about 10% of the payment to the places where people had paid attention to their unjust treatment.

Altogether, the four donated 22 million won, giving 10 million won to a home for single mothers in addition to their donation to the welfare center. They also gave 6 million won to the Red Cross for the students from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, who died in the sinking of the Sewol ferry

“When we were arrested, we didn’t expect that the staff at the welfare center would believe our innocence. But at the time they were the only people we could write to,” said a woman surnamed Cho, 23, describing how desperate they had been. Today, Cho has a family of her own to support.

With Cho’s letter in hand, the staff at the welfare center visited the detention center and met with the teenage runaways who were being held there. After Yu Sun-deok, director of the center, and the counselors heard the teenagers’ pitiful story, they spent the next three years supporting them and aiding the attempt to clear them of charges, visiting public defender Park Jun-young on their behalf.

“It makes me angry that I went to prison at the young age of 18,” Cho said. “When I was arrested after running away, my father turned his back on me. I will never forget how the counselors paid attention to the stories of how hard our lives were.”

“These kids are in a difficult financial situation. I doubt that I would have donated the money if it were me. We will talk about how we can use the money to provide scholarships for young people in need,” Lim said.

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