A former Tae Kwon Do teacher is behind bars after investigators say he molested two young girls.
Andrew Jin Kim, 23, is accused of molesting a six-year-old and a seven-year-old girl.
According to investigators it happened between 2014-2015, when Kim worked at Oh’s Tae Kwon Do Martial Arts Studio in Seminole.
Richard Oh owns the school and says he’s still in shock about the allegations.
“We teach our students to protect themselves from people like this and this hit home here. I’m so disappointed,” Oh said.
Investigators said the victims accused Kim of touching them inappropriately when they were undressing and then told them to keep it a secret. But once that secret was revealed, deputies say Kim confessed to the crimes.
Oh said he fired Kim from the martial arts school last August because he wasn’t being truthful about his whereabouts. Oh says he does extensive background checks on everyone he hires. He said he’s known all of his employees since they were children and he never thought anyone who works for him would be capable of something like this.
“All the instructors that I have I’ve known since kindergarten, elementary school,” Oh said. “And believe it or not the guy that’s in custody, he’s my cousin. Yeah, he’s my cousin, I’ve known him since he was a kid. We were so close. I never thought he would do anything like this.”
Most parents who heard the news were shocked and confused. But there was at least one parent who said he’ll still send his kid back to the martial arts studio.
“I trust Master Oh. So I mean, it’s very shocking to see what’s going on and I trust him with my child every single day and I still do,” parent Alex Guhr said.
Investigators say there could be more victims. They're asking anyone with any information to come forward.