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Former B.A.P member Himchan has been accused of sexually assaulting two women.
The accusations were brought up in an appeals court for a separate sexual assault case Himchan is appealing.
According to prosecutors, on April 17, Himchan assaulted the two women in the outside staircase of a bar in Hannam-Dong, Seoul. The women are said to have reported the assault to the police within a couple of hours after the assault. It is also reported that one of the victims is a foreigner.
According to the victims, they first saw Himchan while waiting for their food outside of the restaurant. The victims allege that Himchan then took the phone of one of the victims. When asked to return it, Himchan is alleged to have grabbed the waist of one of the victims and asked her to go upstairs with him. Another victim alleged that Himchan had touched her breast.
The police are currently investigating what had happened, and have obtained CCTV footage of the incident and interviewed employees for possible witness statements.
Himchan’s lawyer refuted the allegations to SBS News, and stated that although there was physical contact, the nature of it was not sexual.
If you see the CCTV, you can see there was inevitable physical contact, however, there were no sexual intentions.
—Himchan’s lawyer
The lawyer explained that the physical contact occurred out of fear for their safety.
They were standing in a cramped stairway when another customer entered the stairways by opening a door. For the sake of safety, there was physical contact with one of the alleged victim’s waist. If she felt uncomfortable with it, we would like to apologize. There was no contact with the other alleged victim’s breast. However, there was physical contact due to similar reasons. There weren’t any sexual intentions in the contact with either woman.
—Himchan’s lawyer
According to the alleged victims, Himchan was drunk. The alleged victims also worry there will be more victims.
Immediately after the incident occurred, we were so mad we complained to the owner. The owner then called a cab and sent Himchan, who was drunk, home. Soon after, we read Himchan was facing trial for a similar incident. We are concerned that there will be other victims.
—Alleged victims
Just five days earlier, Himchan pled guilty in appeals court for a separate sexual assault case for which he was convicted to ten months in prison.
