The ex-boyfriend of Goo Hara, K-pop star who died in 2019, was sentenced on Thursday to one year of imprisonment by a Seoul Court of Appeal for having blackmailed him with character videos sexual, contributing to his suicide.
Her former partner Choi Jong-bum had appealed after receiving a suspended prison sentence last year for multiple crimes, including blackmail and assault and battery.
"An irreversible trauma"
The Seoul Central District Court found that the blackmail had "seriously damaged" the singer's reputation, leaving her with "irreversible trauma". Her boyfriend, a hairdresser, "was well aware that the extent of the damage would be very serious if the sex videos were disclosed, since the victim was a celebrity," the court said in a statement.
But the court concluded that there was "not enough evidence" that Goo Hara had not consented to be filmed.
The revenge porn drama
In South Korea, a largely conservative society, the women who appear in these videos - although they are the victims - risk being ostracized and socially isolated, aggravating the shame felt.
Goo Hara, the target of offensive comments on social networks, was found dead in November 2019 at her home. In 2018, the singer - member of the group Kara - had explained to local media that her ex had threatened to "end her career in entertainment" by disclosing their intimate videos.
After the successive suicides of Goo Hara and Sulli, another K-pop singer who died a month earlier, the subject of "revenge porn" - the posting by a rejected partner of sexual scenes - once again shook Korea from South. This practice has prompted tens of thousands of women to demonstrate on the streets of Seoul in recent years.
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- Singer
- Suicide
- Blackmail
- South Korea
- People