Actor Kim Soo-hyun's side refuted the late Kim Sae-ron's KakaoTalk messages from her lifetime that were presented as evidence supporting the 'dating a minor' allegations.
On the 4th, Go Sang-rok, a lawyer at the law firm Pill and the legal representative of Kim Soo-hyun, released a third statement regarding the actor's alleged relationship with a minor through his channel.
In that statement, Go Sang-rok said regarding the skinship photos that the family of the late Kim Sae-ron claims were taken when the deceased was a minor, "On the actor's iPad, the questioned photo remained along with adjacent other photos, and the sequence of these photos confirmed shooting dates spaced a few days apart. As a result, the questioned photo was determined to have been taken between Feb. 18 and Feb. 23, 2020. We were able to submit this iPad itself to investigative authorities as is to prove this fact." He said it was proven the photo was taken when the late Kim Sae-ron was an adult and that it was handed over to investigators.
Regarding a statement the late Kim Sae-ron had made public in a KakaoTalk message with an acquaintance claiming she had written it in advance, he said, "It appears the deceased did not intend to release externally the draft false statement that seems to have been prepared with someone's help at the time," and presented as evidence a message the deceased sent to a reporter in life: "It's settled that the article won't be published, right? I'm anxious."
He said, "If this false statement had been released at the time as it was, the claim that the photo was taken in 2016 would have been immediately shown to be false, and there would have been no reason for the deceased, who could not have been unaware of that, to press ahead with releasing a false statement," and added, "Nevertheless, this false statement, which could not have been released at the time, was prepared for some reason, and it became the starting point of this incident one year later."
Go Sang-rok said, "The draft false statement allegedly created under the deceased's involvement contained numerous clear errors," and pointed out errors in the statement claimed to have been written by the deceased: "For example, the immutable fact that there is a 12-year age difference between the deceased and the actor is objective. Nevertheless, the draft false statement wrote 'I was 16, the other party was 30,' explicitly presenting a contradiction. If the deceased was 16, the actor would have to be 28, and if the actor was 30, the deceased would have to be 18. Despite this, the statement not only contained complete falsehoods but went further to adapt immutable facts and maliciously layer falsehoods."
He added, "This appears to have been prepared propaganda intended to create the image that a man in his 30s psychologically dominated and sexually exploited a child (under 16), who is considered to lack sexual self-determination under current law and social norms," and argued that the family released the statement to maliciously frame Kim Soo-hyun.
Meanwhile, the late Kim Sae-ron passed away on Feb. 16. She was 24. Afterwards, her family claimed she had dated Kim Soo-hyun for six years since middle school and released as evidence the couple's selfies and letters sent during his military service, causing a stir. Kim Soo-hyun's side acknowledged dating the deceased but disputed the period, saying the relationship was from the summer of 2019, when the deceased was an adult, until the following spring. Kim Soo-hyun has since filed a criminal complaint against the family of the late Kim Sae-ron for defamation and a civil suit seeking damages of about 12 billion won.
[Photo] OSEN DB, Jin-gyeok-ui Gobyun
[OSEN]