Bangkok Post

Cops ‘sorry’ about serial killer case

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SEOUL: South Korea’s most notorious serial killer murdered 15 women, police said yesterday, as they apologised for a botched, decades-long investigat­ion that saw an innocent man jailed for 20 years.

Lee Chun-jae raped and murdered 10 women in rural parts of Hwaseong, south of Seoul, over a five-year period from 1986, police said. Lee, 57, was only identified as a suspect last year.

He has admitted all 10 Hwaseong murders, as well as four others.

Provincial police chief Bae Yong-ju bowed before the cameras as he apologised to the victims’ families and those who had been falsely accused as suspects, as well as a man who was wrongfully convicted of one of the killings and served 20 years in jail.

Yesterday’s announceme­nt confirmed that a man surnamed Yoon — who was convicted in 1989 of killing one of the Hwaseong victims — was wrongfully jailed. He was released in 2009 after serving 20 years in prison.

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