A YouTuber identified as A, who revealed the identities of perpetrators in the Miryang group sexual assault case, was sentenced to prison.
According to Yonhap News, on the 15th Judge Kim Woong-su of Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 15 sentenced A, who was prosecuted on charges including violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (defamation), to eight months in prison and a fine of 300,000 won, and ordered immediate detention.
Earlier, the YouTube channel "나락보관소" had published photos showing the names and faces of the perpetrators in the Miryang group sexual assault case, residence, workplaces and other personal identifying information. A is accused of capturing those materials, reediting them into videos and reposting them on his social media and YouTube channel, and was brought to trial.
The court noted that A uploaded the posts with the intention of punishing the perpetrators in the course of the investigation and ruled "this is not permitted under current law and cannot be seen as serving the public interest."
The court especially criticized the disclosure of personal identifying information even though some of the victims had not been confirmed to have participated in the Miryang rape incident. The court also emphasized that private punishment can undermine the judicial system.
The Miryang group rape case occurred in Dec. 2004 when 44 high school students from the Miryang area lured one middle school girl from Ulsan to Miryang and repeatedly raped her over the course of a year. Marking the 20th anniversary of the incident last year, personal identifying information of those presumed to be perpetrators was widely circulated online, sparking controversy.
[Photo] OSEN DB.
[OSEN]