YouTuber Woongi (real name Lee Byung-woong), who was indicted on charges including assaulting his ex-girlfriend, also received a suspended prison sentence on appeal.
According to legal sources on the 31st, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeals Division 2-2 (Presiding Judges Kang Hee-seok, Cho Eun-ah, and Kwak Jeong-han) sentenced Lee, who faces charges including housebreaking and assault, to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, the same as in the first trial.
Lee is accused of assaulting the victim during an argument at his ex-girlfriend's home in Gangnam District, Seoul, in Feb. 2023. When the victim called the police at the time, he allegedly pressured her to place a call to cancel the report and, before officers arrived, washed the blood off her face and forced her to change clothes. It also came to light that in Dec. 2022 he entered the home without permission even though the victim had changed the door lock passcode.
During the trial, Lee argued that he had never committed assault or made threats, but the court found most of the charges guilty, citing the victim's statements as specific and consistent.
Lee is a creator who gained popularity with "mukbang" content as an AfreecaTV BJ and on YouTube. He had been on a roll, earning positive reviews for a clean-cut image and for running a campaign to find missing persons, but this case has dealt a major blow to his image.
After the case became public, Lee said on his channel that he was cleared of sex crime charges and expressed his intention to resume activities. However, his subscriber count, which exceeded 1.2 million before the controversy, has continued to fall and now stands at about 730,000.