K-Pop star given 1-year jail term for sharing footage of rape victims

Famous K-pop star Choi Jong Hoon has been awarded a jail sentence for a year for distributing footage and filming rape victims.

Seoul: K-pop star Choi Jong Hoon has been sentenced to one year in jail for filming his rape victims and sending the footage to his friends.

According to news reports, the 31-year-old disgraced star was previously sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting women who were "drunk and unable to resist," along with singer Jung Joon Young, at two parties in 2016.

The former F.T. Island band member filmed and photographed their victims and shared the illegally-taken footage with his friends digitally.

Choi Jong Hoon was sentenced by Seoul Central District Court on March 27.

"On his charge of filming a woman's nude body, offering it to other people, and distributing pornographic material, he quickly and easily spread a video that could distort a sound sexual awareness, so the societal damage is great," the presiding judge said.

The singer was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for two years of probation, along with 80 hours in a sexual violence rehabilitation program.

He is also banned from employment at children and youth facilities for five years.

The sentence also included a charge for attempted bribery, after he tried to give a police officer $1,639 to cover up his drink-driving arrest in 2016.

Jung Joon Young is serving six years in prison for his involvement in the activity.

With inputs from IANS.