SEOUL — A U.S. Army sergeant was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting a male South Korean soldier last year.

A general court-martial panel found U.S. Sgt. Leng Sok, formerly of Division Artillery, 2nd Infantry Division, guilty of sodomy, aiding and abetting sodomy, conspiracy to commit sodomy, assault, indecent acts and making a false official statement.

The panel reduced Sok in rank to private, gave him a dishonorable discharge and ordered a total forfeiture of all pay and allowances. Military authorities say he’ll serve his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Sok was flown from Fort Lewis, Wash., his current duty station, for the trial, which began Wednesday.

During the trial’s sentencing phase, the victim testified he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the attack. He said he has nightmares, hallucinations and has been put on anti-depressants and sleep medication. He also said he often mentally relives the attack, which makes him vomit and have difficulty breathing.

“I try to think it’s OK, but I know it’s not OK,” the victim said of his life since the attack.

The victim was a South Korean attached to the U.S. Army, or KATUSA. He said Sok and two other U.S. sergeants assaulted him in an outdoor latrine at Camp Jackson on March 3, 2002, where he was attending the KATUSA Training Academy.

Sok and the other two sergeants were attending the Primary Leadership Development Course at Jackson.

According to the victim’s testimony, and an August confession by Sok to military investigators, the three U.S. soldiers approached the victim while he was alone in an outdoor latrine. Sok grabbed the victim by the throat and brandished a knife. The three soldiers forced the victim to perform various sexual acts, then left him, unconscious, in a toilet stall.

Sok later recanted his confession; his defense lawyers argued he was coerced into making the statements.

Maj. James Patterson, 2nd ID deputy staff judge advocate, said the other two sergeants are under investigation but have “not yet been charged with anything.”

The victim didn’t report the crime but eventually told his mother, who wrote military authorities months after the assault, the court heard. The victim identified Sok from a group of photos.

In their closing arguments, defense lawyers portrayed the victim as a “spoiled, troubled soldier who can‘t adjust to the military.” They contended he fabricated the entire story.

“It’s sheer fantasy,” defense attorney Maj. Rob Broughton said of the South Korean soldier’s claims. “It’s something out of an American movie.”

He stressed that for court-martial panel members to believe the victim’s story, they would have to believe that three U.S. sergeants, who had known each other for just a few weeks, conspired to rape a male KATUSA.

Broughton alleged the victim “fabricated this story.” He argued that the soldier is an opportunist, pointing to the mother’s letter, which he said demanded millions of dollars in return for her son’s cooperation and for not taking the story to the media.

Broughton also said Sok’s confession to Army investigators should be questioned.

“If you beat him up enough … he’s the kind of person who would say, ‘It was me, I did it,’ ” Broughton said of Sok.

Prosecutors argued that Sok’s confession “proved beyond reasonable doubt” that he was guilty.

Maj. Vince Vanek, a prosecutor, said Sok made the confession to Criminal Investigation Division agents “for the sole purpose of purging his own guilt. Thank God for CID agents who know how to do their job.

“It’s ludicrous to believe that CID would plant details in a confession,” Vanek said.

South Korean authorities had the right of primary jurisdiction in the case because the U.S. troops were not on official duty at the time of the assault. But they transferred jurisdiction to U.S. Forces Korea to help protect the victim’s privacy, according to military officials.