Leader Of South Korea Online Sex Cult Gets 40 Years In Prison
The leader of one of South Korea's biggest online sex networks has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, reports said Friday.
Cho Ju-bin was charged with blackmailing 74 women, including minors, into filming sexually explicit videos and posting them on pay-per-view online chat rooms. Authorities called the sex abuse ring "virtual enslavement."
According to the Seoul Central District Court, the 25-year old convicted sex offender "distributed sexually abusive content that he created by luring and threatening many victims," the Yonhap news agency quoted it saying.
Court representative Kim Yong-chan said Cho was convicted of violating the country's child protection laws and operating a criminal organization. Cho "disclosed the identities of many of his victims and inflicted irreparable damages to them."
South Korea prosecutors initially demanded a life sentence for Cho on the basis of the "irreparable damage" he inflicted on his victims, the Telegraph reported.
Cho was found guilty of "instructing a third party to rape a victim, who was a minor," the court ruled.
Cho hosted online sex chat forums through encrypted messaging app Telegram where some users paid up to $1,200 to see minors perform sexual acts under duress. At least 10,000 people use the chat rooms - with some paying in cryptocurrency to watch the sex videos, officials say.
On Thursday, the Seoul court sentenced five of Cho's associates - one of them a 16-year-old - to up to 15 years in prison.
Cho's case sparked widespread outrage in South Korea because of a culture some experts say is too forgiving about sexual abuse.
Following a series of investigations into similar sexual violations, authorities said more than 120 suspects had been arrested since 2019 and at least a dozen other leaders of internet sex rings had been jailed.