Former K-pop star Jung Joon-young leaves prison after completing five-year term for sex crimes
Jung Joon-young
Former K-pop star Jung Joon-young walked out of prison on Tuesday after serving a five-year sentence for his involvement in a high-profile spycam and rape scandal that shook South Korea. Jung, now 35 years old, was found guilty of rape on two occasions in 2016. He was also convicted of filming himself having intercourse with other women without their knowledge and then sharing the footage without their consent. These videos, known as "molka" in Korean, are clandestinely shot and often depict women in schools, toilets, and other private spaces.
His case was part of a series of sex scandals involving male celebrities that emerged during South Korea's #MeToo movement in 2018. Thousands of women took to the streets of Seoul to protest, demanding an end to the exploitation of women and chanting, "My life is not your porn."
Jung, wearing a black hat and mask, left the prison in Mokpo, approximately 350 kilometres (218 miles) south of Seoul, without speaking to the press on Tuesday morning, according to News1 agency.
Another K-pop star, Seungri, a former member of the popular boy band BIGBANG, was also implicated in the scandal. Seungri was found to have received spycam videos from Jung and was later separately found guilty of multiple charges related to a sex and drugs scandal at his nightclub, Burning Sun.
Jung, who rose to fame in 2012 after finishing third in the audition show Super Star K, announced his retirement from the entertainment industry when the spycam scandal broke in 2019. He expressed remorse for his actions, stating that he had "committed crimes that cannot be forgiven."
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The spycam scandal not only led to legal repercussions for Jung and others involved but also highlighted the broader issue of non-consensual filming and distribution of intimate images and videos in South Korea. Goo Hara, a former member of the girl group Kara, tragically died by suicide in 2019 after being blackmailed with "revenge porn" by an ex-boyfriend.
The scandal has continued to reverberate in South Korea, with international footballer Hwang Ui-jo currently under investigation for allegedly filming sexual encounters without consent. Hwang, who is on loan from Nottingham Forest to Turkish club Alanyaspor, denies the charges.
(With inputs from agencies)