Former Cheongju city council member Choi Young-jung, who is accused of child prostitution, finished a pretrial detention hearing on the 30th.
About an hour before the hearing, at around 1 p.m. that day, Choi entered the courthouse wearing a suit and a mask. Reporters on the scene repeatedly asked whether he admitted the crime and whether he had failed to recognize that the other party was a minor, but Choi did not speak.
After completing the court review, which lasted about 1 hour and 10 minutes, Choi walked out around 3:15 p.m. but remained silent amid a barrage of questions. With both hands bound by a rope and shielded from view, Choi got into a transport vehicle and is now at the Cheongwon Police Station detention center awaiting the decision on whether a warrant will be issued. A decision on detention could come as early as that night.
Choi is accused of having inappropriate relations with a middle school student on three occasions over about a year, beginning in Oct. 2024, in places including a car and a motel. In addition, he is accused of asking the victim to take and send nude photos and of encouraging prostitution by saying, "If you bring an additional friend, I will pay you extra." There are also indications that he caused sexual humiliation by showing the victim a video of relations with another woman and by sending messages that appeared to suggest a joint act with a foreign woman.
Choi is also suspected of destroying evidence, including changing his mobile phone during the investigation and deleting some data from the results of a private forensic analysis he voluntarily submitted after a police search and seizure.
During a police interview, Choi has denied the charges, saying, "There was sexual intercourse, but I did not know the person was a minor."