Prosecutors have launched a forced investigation to secure the custody of former Cheongju city council member Choi Young-jung, who is accused of child prostitution.
According to the Cheongju District Court on the 29th, the pretrial detention hearing to determine whether to issue a warrant for the former council member will be held at 2 p.m. on the 30th, presided over by Presiding Judge Tae Ji-young.
The Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office is also said to have applied for a communications warrant that would allow it to examine the former council member's phone call records for the past year, citing the seriousness of the case.
Earlier, on the 9th, prosecutors once sent back the communications warrant first requested by police, citing a lack of specific proof regarding other criminal allegations.
From October 2024 for about a year, the former council member is accused of having sexual intercourse with a middle school girl three times in a passenger car or at lodging facilities, and of demanding that she take and send nude photos.
The charges brought by prosecutors include a range of serious offenses, such as statutory rape under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses, production of sexual exploitation material, solicitation of sex buying, and conversations for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
During the investigation, it also emerged that the former council member coaxed the victim by saying he would pay more if she brought a friend her age or an older acquaintance. In addition, he was further accused of persistently attempting sexual conversations, such as forcibly showing her pornographic videos featuring other women and sending text messages that appeared to hint at group sex with foreign women.
He is also suspected of destroying evidence by, among other things, changing his mobile phone during the investigation and deleting some data from a privately commissioned forensic report he voluntarily submitted after a search and seizure.
In a police interview, the former council member denied the allegations, saying, "I did have sexual intercourse, but I didn't know she was a minor."