K-pop stars Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon jailed for gang-raping unconscious women, sharing videos of assaults
K-pop stars Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, both 30 years old, have been sentenced to six and five years in prison respectively after being convicted for gang-raping women while they were drunk and unconscious. Jung was also charged with filming the rape. Both men will also have to undergo 80 hours of sexual violence treatment and have been prohibited from working with children.
Former 'Superstar K4' star Jung was arrested in March earlier this year and soon retired from the industry. Choi, who is a former member of South Korean boy band FT Island, was a part of online chat groups that distributed secret sex tapes and casually joked about raping and drugging women, the Seoul Central District Court said.
Jung made videos of women without their knowledge while having sex with them. While Jung admitted to sharing the sex tapes, he said that the sex had been consensual.
"The defendants are well-known celebrities and friends, but the chat they’ve had showed that they simply considered women as objects of sexual pleasure, and committed crimes that were extremely serious,” Judge Kang Seong-soo said while announcing the verdict, Reuters reported, "Strict punishment is inevitable as the damage inflicted has not properly been recovered and the victims demand harsh penalties."
Jung had said in a statement in March, "I filmed women without their consent and shared it in a chatroom, and while I was doing so I didn’t feel a great sense of guilt. Most of all, I kneel down to apologize to the women who appear in the videos and all those who might be disappointed and upset at this shocking incident" Yonhap news agency reported.
Jung's offenses are a part of a scandal called the Burning Sun scandal which is considered to be the largest to have hit the thriving South Korean entertainment industry.
Many celebrities were exposed as a part of the investigation including Lee Seung-Hyun aka Seungri, a former member of the K-pop group Big Bang. The name of the scandal comes from the nightclub of the same name affiliated with Seungri. Jung's crimes came to light during the investigation into Seungri.