The rapist of a young Durban woman who was attacked while working as an English teacher in South Korea has quadrupled his offer of "blood money".
But Melissa Brouard, 23, a University of KwaZulu-Natal graduate who fled home in August, is steadfastly refusing the money. Initially she was offered R32 000, now it is about R120 000.
She wants the law in South Korea changed, to increase the maximum penalty of four years' imprisonment.
Brouard said she felt that the South Korean justice system, which provided for lesser sentences where "blood money" was offered to victims, favoured rapists. First-time offenders there can be sentenced to as little as 18 months in jail.
Brouard is angry and traumatised after the attack which cut short her happy stay in Korea.
She said a friend who had travelled for 10 hours by bus from Seoul to Ulsan to attend the court case, told her that the rapist had shown no visible signs of remorse.
"He has offered me roughly R120 000. The rights of the rapist increased because he offered me more money and he has showed no remorse."
She said the rapist lived across the car park from her flat in one of four blocks of flats in the complex.
He had been watching her through binoculars from his flat for weeks, before he climbed into her tenth floor flat through the laundry window one night while she was sleeping.
He had handcuffed her before raping her. She had begged him not to kill her.
Brouard praised the swift work of police who arrested him six days later after tracking him on CCTV footage.
The rapist has now appeared briefly in court in Ulsan where he pleaded guilty to the rape and offered Brouard R120 000 "blood money" for the crime.
Brouard, a virgin before the attack, said she was determined to do everything in her power to lobby for the laws in that country to be changed and for the maximum four year sentence to be increased to at least 20 years.
"He took so much away from me. I was happy in my job. I am really angry that this can be brushed over and seen as not a big deal.
"I realise that this happens every minute in South Africa and I am not trying to say that my case is special, but the justice system (in South Korea) is very sympathetic to him.
"If people can't get a lawyer the case is just shoved under the table. This guy has been caught and has admitted to it. He originally got a really good lawyer but he realised his chances of getting him off were very slim so he passed it on to a younger lawyer," she said.
Back home, Brouard said she had managed to find a job and although she was fine during the day she battled to sleep at night and was traumatised by small things like spotting a policeman's handcuffs on his belt and seeing Asian men on television, which reminded her of the attacker.
"Obviously, I want him to get the maximum sentence but if four years is the maximum sentence that is shocking. He needs to go to jail for at least 20 years. He admitted to a sexual crime and he stalked me.
"He must be taken off the streets," Brouard said.
"He walked in there as if he was going to see friends for coffee.
"It feels like the rapist has more rights than me. There is such injustice in the legal system.
"If I take the money he gets a lesser sentence and if I don't take the money he gets a lesser sentence," Brouard said.
She said her lawyer had advised her that in South Korea "the rights of a man's violence are summarised by the money he can pay" - meaning that men who assaulted women could get away with a lenient penalty to the degree that they could afford to pay blood money as they had shown themselves to be a "good sport".
Brouard is now trying to obtain a letter from the Minister of Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, and the South African Embassy, which she wants to file with the Korean court to indicate to that there is international interest in the case.