K-pop stars jailed for gang-rape in South Korea

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by AnonymousTank

A South Korean court has sentenced two K-pop stars to six and five years in prison for gang-rape and additionally convicted one of them for distributing videos of the assaults and other sexual encounters.

Jung Joon-young, a singer-songwriter, and Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of the boy band FT Island, were found guilty of gang-raping two different women in two incidents in 2016.

Separately, 30-year-old Jung was convicted of filming himself having sex with other women without their knowledge and sharing the footage without their consent.

It is the highest-profile example of an epidemic of spycam crimes in South Korea, which have prompted widespread anger and led to women demonstrating in Seoul chanting: “My life is not your porn.”

Jung distributed his videos in mobile chatrooms with recipients including a fellow K-pop star, Seungri of BigBang, who has been accused of illegal gambling in connection with a sex and drugs scandal.

Jung was jailed for six years and Choi, 29, for five. Seoul central district court rejected the defendants’ claim that the sex was consensual.

“Jung and Choi took part in gang-rape of victims who were intoxicated and unable to resist,” the verdict said, according to Yonhap news agency. “It is hard to fathom the extent of suffering the victims must have gone through.”

The court said the two singers had seen the victims as “sexual objects” to be exploited, adding: “They should assume social responsibility in proportion to their fame and wealth.” Both men wept when the sentences were announced.

While the minimum sentence for rape in South Korea is three years, most online commentators said the penalties were too lenient. “The victims have to live in agony for the next 60 years, not just six,” one poster wrote on the country’s largest portal site, Naver. Another added: “I hear they burst into tears at sentencing. The victims will live in tears for the rest of their lives.”

Jung rose to fame in 2014 when he came third in an audition show, Super Star K, and he had a number of solo hits before the video scandal broke in March, when he announced his retirement.

At that time the rape accusations had yet to emerge, and he said he had “committed crimes that cannot be forgiven”.

There was no immediate statement from his lawyers or his record company on Friday.

Known as molka, South Korean spycam videos are largely made by men secretly filming women in schools, toilets and elsewhere, although the term can also be applied to clandestinely shot footage of consensual sex.

Last weekend Goo Hara, a former member of the girl group Kara, died in an apparent suicide a year after she was blackmailed over revenge porn.

Goo’s ex-boyfriend threatened to “end her entertainment career” by leaking the footage, and a CCTV clip showed her kneeling before him apparently begging him not to. He was convicted of blackmail.

In conservative South Korea, women who appear in such videos often feel deep shame despite being the victims, and face the threat of ostracism and social isolation. Around 5,500 people were arrested for molka offences last year, 97% of them men, according to police data.

Imortanjellyfish on November 30th, 2019 at 00:38 UTC »

My first thought was "these guys are literal rockstars, they should be able to find someone that wants to have sex with them?", but then I realized it has nothing to do with wanting a consenting sexual partner. Their intent and desire was to rape.

Rosebunse on November 29th, 2019 at 22:49 UTC »

The sad thing is, this is a good thing, in the sense that someone actually reported it and these people were jailed. Not too long ago, they probably wouldn't have even gotten that.

That being said, how hard is it not to rape someone? Especially when you're that rich that you could pay someone to help you enact this fantasy.

drkgodess on November 29th, 2019 at 22:34 UTC »

Jung said, “Let’s all get together online, hit the strip bar and rape them in the car.” Another member responded, “Our lives are like a movie. We have done so many things that could put us in jail. We just haven’t killed anyone."

The court said the two singers had seen the victims as “sexual objects” to be exploited, adding: “They should assume social responsibility in proportion to their fame and wealth.” Both men wept when the sentences were announced.

If only their delicious tears could make up for casually discussing how many women they were going to rape each night.