🖋 Jonah Moon, BBC Choral Department

"I suffered from the inside, that's why I came to tell my story."

These were Su Mihyun's first words to the police.

Sue, who has an intellectual disability, has difficulty with long sentences and can only communicate in short words and movements. But the memories of the abuses he suffered remained vivid in his mind.

She was one of three residents of a state-run detention center in South Korea who were sexually assaulted by the facility's director. The case shocked South Korea and raised serious questions about the government's treatment of people with disabilities.

Earlier this month, a Seoul court sentenced the center's director, identified only by his surname Kim, to 15 years in prison. Kim intercepted this sentence.

The court ruling came nearly two years after Sue, who is in her 40s, first disclosed the abuse to her mother. We have changed the names of Sue and another victim in this report to protect their identities.