Chat room operator gets 40 years for blackmail

SEOUL — The operator of an online chat room in South Korea was sentenced on Thursday to 40 years in prison for blackmailing dozens of women, including minors, into filming sexually explicit videos and selling them to others.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho Ju- bin, 24, of violating the laws on protecting minors and organizing a criminal ring, court spokesman Kim Yong- chan said.

The court ruled Cho “used various methods to lure and blackmail a large number of victims into making sexually abusive content and distributed them to many people for an extended period,” Kim said. “He particularly disclosed the identities of many victims and inflicted irreparable damages to them.”

Cho has maintained he only cheated victims into making such videos but did not blackmail or coerce them, forcing some of the victims to testify in court.

Kim said the court decided to isolate Cho from society for a prolonged period considering his attitude and the seriousness and evil influence of his crime.

Both Cho and prosecutors, who had requested a life sentence, have one week to appeal.

Cho and five accomplices were detained in March for allegedly producing sexually abusive videos of 74 victims, 16 of them minors, and distributing them on the Telegram messaging app where users paid in cryptocurrency to watch them in 2019- 20.

A prosecutors’ statement called Cho’s group “a criminal ring” of 38 members.

On Thursday, the Seoul court sentenced five of Cho’s accomplices, one of them a 16- year- old, to up to 15 years in prison.

Cho’s case has triggered intense public uproar and soul- searching in South Korea over a culture that some experts say is too lenient about sexual violence and continuously fails the victims.

President Moon Jae- in earlier called for a thorough investigation and stern punishment for those operating chat rooms like Cho’s and their users.