Police released CCTV stills of Young Jang, asking for the public's help to identify him, shortly after the incident inside a central Auckland apartment complex.
Police released CCTV stills of Young Jang, asking for the public's help to identify him, shortly after the incident inside a central Auckland apartment complex.
A man who was caught on camera leaving a central Auckland apartment building without pants after a sexually motivated attack on a stranger has been sentenced to home detention after a judge noted today that he has a history of drug-induced psychosis.
Castor Bay resident Young Jang, 33, turned himselfin one day after police put out a call to the public to help identify the CCTV stills.
He told police he didn’t remember much of the evening, which also included indecently exposing himself to three female bystanders he encountered at bus stops. He had been high on methamphetamine and cannabis and hadn’t slept in days, he claimed.
“It does not make what you did less serious,” Auckland District Court judge Stephen Bonnar told Jang of his drug use as the defendant stood in the dock with his head bowed, wiping away tears.
But the judge acknowledged that long-term drug use can lead to mental health issues.
Police released CCTV stills of Young Jang, asking for the public's help to identify him, shortly after the incident inside a central Auckland apartment complex.
The offending occurred over the course of one evening in July last year.
The first indecent act occurred around 7pm on Onewa Rd in Northcote, as he yelled out to two victims walking to a bus stop then removed his pants. They got on the bus but Jang also got on at the next stop, removing his pants again as he sat down near them and began to fondle himself, according to court documents.
A driver made him put his pants back on and sit in the back of the bus, while the two women got off at the next stop to avoid him, according to the agreed summary of facts for the case. The incident was recorded by CCTV cameras on the bus.
About 9.20pm that same night, he encountered another victim as she returned to her central Auckland apartment complex. She had seen that he appeared to be wearing only his underwear at that point, standing near the entrance to her building, and so she tried to walk briskly past him. But he followed closely, getting past the security door, and then followed her into the apartment’s lift.
In the lift, he removed his underwear then grabbed her from behind in a bear hug when she tried to exit. When she did manage to exit on the ninth floor, he followed her out and waited as she knocked on a stranger’s door for help, to no avail, court documents state.
“You grabbed the victim and pulled her into the stairwell,” Judge Bonnar noted today of the struggle that ensued.
The victim of that attack watched today’s hearing remotely via audio-visual feed. Crown prosecutor Emma Kerr read aloud her victim impact statement for her.
“I faced a harrowing and life-altering ordeal,” the woman wrote of the attack, in which she said Jang grabbed her by the neck, prompting her to think she was about to die. “For the first time in my life, I felt the chilling proximity of death.”
Since then, the woman said, she has had frequent nightmares about not being able to breathe and has had to take sleeping medication. She now feels fearful around strangers and has friends drop off groceries and supplies because she feels uncomfortable leaving her apartment.
“My life as I once knew it has been forever altered,” she said. “The pain and torment I experienced are indescribable.”
Jang’s final indecent act occurred just after 11pm, when he walked up to a woman at a Fanshaw St bus stop in the city centre, again wearing a sweatshirt but not pants and again beginning to do lewd acts in her presence.
Another CCTV still showed Young Jang wearing pants earlier in the evening as he travelled to central Auckland via bus.
Jang could have faced up to 10 years’ imprisonment for that attempted rape charge and up to seven years’ imprisonment for two counts of indecent assault involving the same attack. Additionally, he faced up to two years’ imprisonment for two charges of doing indecent acts in public places - the bus stop allegations.
“She endured a prolonged and serious assault,” Kerr said today as she listed the aggravating factors of the case, including that he cornered a vulnerable, smaller-statured woman and left her with bruises, abrasions and emotional harm.
Defence lawyer George Burns said his client didn’t remember what happened but immediately accepted responsibility when police showed him the CCTV images.
His client moved to New Zealand when he was 4 years old but returned to South Korea for a brief period as a young adult to serve in the military there, achieving the rank of sergeant, he noted. While he has struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues for years, he has no prior criminal convictions, Burns said.
He referred to a psychological report noting that Jang had been hospitalised for drug-induced psychosis on two other occasions in the two years before the night of the attack. He’s since penned three apology letters and has refrained from using drugs out of fear, the lawyer said.
Of the attack on the woman in her apartment building, Burns noted that his client stopped the molestation “of his own accord”.
“He had a moment of clarity,” Burns said, explaining that for the vast majority of the incident Jang had found “it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality”.
The judge said he agreed that Jang’s remorse appeared to be genuine. He also noted the defendant’s risk of reoffending was assessed as being low compared to other adult sex offenders.
“In any assessment, the offending has to be seen as out of character for you,” the judge acknowledged, adding that it was a difficult decision but he was “persuaded by a fine margin” that Jang should serve a sentence other than prison. He needs support and rehabilitation that he is unlikely to get in prison, the judge explained.
He ordered Jang to serve 12 months of home detention followed by 12 more months of post-detention supervision. He also ordered the defendant to pay $4000 - to be borrowed from his parents, who sat in court today - to the apartment attack victim as emotional harm reparation.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
