South Korean singer jailed for rape, sharing sex videos

The K-pop star was remanded in prison on Friday after a South Korean court convicted him of raping a woman and distributing a video capturing the act.

Joon-young, who doubles as a former member of FT Island, South Korean boy band, was arrested in March and questioned by the Seoul metropolitan police agency on accusations of illicitly taping and sharing sex videos.

He was served the jail term alongside Choi Jong-hoon, his friend and former group member, who similarly bagged five years jail term for the same offense.

According to the Seoul central district court, both offenders were members of online chat groups that shared secret sex tapes and made jokes about drugging and raping women.

Joon-young’s conviction includes the illegal distribution of other videos he took secretly while having sex with women.

He admitted distributing the videos he took but argued that the sex was consensual. Jong-hoon, however, denied raping the woman, adding that he did not remember having sex with her and that, if he had, it was likely consensual.

While the identities of the victims were suppressed to protect their privacy, the court also sentenced each man to 80 hours in “sexual violence treatment” education.

“The defendants are well-known celebrities and friends, but the chat they’ve had showed that they simply considered women as objects of sexual pleasure, and committed crimes that were extremely serious,” Kang Seong-soo, the judge, said.

“Strict punishment is inevitable as the damage inflicted has not properly been recovered and the victims demand harsh penalties.”

The duo’s case is one of the scandals involving sex crimes in the industry as Lee Seung-hyun, a former member of K-pop group Big Bang, is also on trial over claims that he hired prostitutes for foreign businessmen aid investment in his business.