A 41-year-old Falls Church woman was allegedly locked in a room, forced to watch pornography and repeatedly sexually assaulted at the World Employment Agency in Annandale on Tuesday, July 7.
According to Fairfax County Police reports, the attacks occurred around 9 a.m. when the woman went to the agency at 7601 Little River Turnpike seeking employment.
The woman escaped after telling the alleged perpetrator that she needed to use the restroom, according to Lucy Caldwell, a public information officer with the FCPD. The woman was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Caldwell said.
Police investigated and charged Choon Sik Lee, 72, of Annandale with two counts of attempted forcible sodomy on Thursday, July 9.
During the investigation, detectives also uncovered a second incident that allegedly took place at around 8:30 a.m. on May 19 under similar circumstances. The 28-year-old Fairfax City woman involved in this case also suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to police reports.
“We don’t want this to happen again. We have a large population of immigrants who may not be comfortable, for many reasons, with reporting this to law enforcement, whether it’s language barriers or experiences they’ve had in other places,” Caldwell said.
“We want to assure them that they will be treated with respect … We are very concerned about this, and we want any potential victims out there to know that we have victims’ services for these types of sexual assaults, and the victims will be kept anonymous,” Caldwell said.
Based on their investigation, detectives believe there may be additional women who have not yet reported incidents involving the alleged perpetrator and the World Employment Agency. Victims should contact Detective Amy Palizzi at 703-246-7818.
“If they do not speak English, interpretation services will be provided,” Caldwell said. In an effort to reach additional victims, the police provided Korean and Spanish interpreters Wednesday, July 13 to Asian and Spanish media outlets at the West Springfield District Station, 6140 Rolling Road, Springfield from 1 to 2 p.m.