Choi Young-jung, a former Cheongju City Council member accused of buying sex from a middle school student, was ultimately arrested and detained.
On the 30th, Tae Ji-young, Director General judge at the Cheongju District Court, held a warrant hearing for Choi, the former council member facing several charges including statutory rape of a minor, and after questioning, issued an arrest warrant, citing a risk of evidence destruction.
Prosecutors allege that from Oct. 2024 for about a year, Choi met a middle school student for sex on three occasions in places including inside a car and at lodging facilities, and demanded and obtained nude photos. The statutes applied to him include statutory rape of a minor under the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Offenses, production of sexually exploitative material, solicitation of prostitution, and conversations for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
It was also confirmed that he coaxed the victim, a female student, by saying, "If you bring your friends or older girls, I will pay you more," and that he repeatedly engaged in inappropriate conversations, including showing her videos of sex with another person and sending messages implying that he wanted to have sex together with a foreign woman.
In particular, while under investigation, Choi is also suspected of destroying evidence by switching the mobile phone he had been using and deleting some data in a privately commissioned forensic report he voluntarily submitted after police completed a search and seizure.
Choi has denied the charges, saying, "I did have sexual intercourse, but I did not know the person was a minor."