Seoul - A South Korean court sentenced a
K-pop musician to six years in prison on Friday for raping a
woman and distributing a video capturing the act in a case that
drew attention to the darker side of the country's lucrative
entertainment industry.
Jung Joon-young, 30, was arrested in March. Choi Jong-hoon,
30, a former member of South Korean boy band FT Island, was also
sentenced to five years in prison for the rape of the woman.
Both were members of online chat groups that shared secret
sex tapes and made jokes about drugging and raping women, the
Seoul Central District Court said.
Jung's conviction also includes the illegal distribution of
other videos he took secretly while having sex with women. 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," Judge Kang Seong-soo said as he handed down
the verdict.
"Strict punishment is inevitable as the damage inflicted has
not properly been recovered and the victims demand harsh
penalties."
Jung admitted distributing the video and others he took,
though he argued the sex was in all cases consensual. Choi
denied raping the woman, and had argued that he did not remember
having sex with her and that if he had, it was likely
consensual.
Lawyers for Jung and Choi could not be reached for comment.
Their case was one of several scandals involving sex crimes
and other illegal activity that revealed a dark side of an
industry at the centre of the global K-pop craze.
Lee Seung-hyun, a former member of K-pop group Big Bang
better known by the stage name Seungri, is also on trial over
accusations he paid for prostitutes for foreign businessmen to
drum up investment in his business.