The nation’s top court on Thursday upheld the conviction of a faculty member at a school for the hearing impaired, who was found guilty of raping a disabled student.

The 65-year-old former administrator at Gwangju Inhwa School in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old deaf student in April 2005.

The administrator, only identified by his surname Kim, was also found guilty of physically abusing another 17-year-old student who had witnessed the crime. The victim attempted to commit suicide afterward.

The high-profile case involving physically disabled students sent shock waves across the nation following the release of a local box-office hit, “Dogani.” The film was titled “Silenced” in English. (Yonhap News)