A K-pop singer known as Taeil and two other men were each sentenced to three and a half years in jail on Thursday on a rape charge in a case involving a tourist who was visiting South Korea last year.
Taeil, 31, whose legal name is Moon Tae-il, had pleaded guilty last month along with the other two. According to the local media, the defendants met the woman, a Chinese national, at a bar in Seoul. They took her in a taxi to the home of one of the defendants, where they sexually assaulted her while she was heavily intoxicated.
Prosecutors had sought a seven-year jail term. They said it appeared that the suspects had deliberately moved the victim to another location so it would be hard for her to recall details of the attack.
Mr. Moon, a former member of NCT, a popular boy band, appeared in Seoul Central District Court on Thursday wearing a black T-shirt and slacks. His eyes were downcast as Judge Lee Hyun-kyung read aloud his sentence.
“The crime is severe,” she said. Their target “likely suffered great mental pain from being a victim in an unfamiliar place.”
There was no noticeable reaction from the defendants or others in the courtroom to the sentences, but some people on social media expressed anger, saying the sentences were not long enough.
The three men had pleaded guilty to what South Korean law calls “special quasi-rape,” which applies in certain cases such as when the victim is unconscious. The maximum sentence for that crime is life in prison.
All three defendants were taken into custody immediately after the sentencing. They also will need to complete 40 hours of a program for sexual violence.
Mr. Moon isn’t the first K-pop star to be jailed for sex crimes in recent years.
In 2019, Choi Jong-hoon and Jung Joon-young were given jail terms of five and six years for raping women who were too drunk to give consent, and for making and sharing videos of the assaults online. Seungri, a former member of BigBang, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 for sex crimes that included arranging for prostitution at a night club called Burning Sun.
Last August, Mr. Moon’s management company released a statement saying he was “accused in a criminal case involving sex crimes” and that he had left the band.
“We apologize for the controversy that’s been caused by our artist,” the label said. In October, the label announced it had terminated Mr. Moon’s contract.
Mr. Moon made his debut in 2016 in a sub-unit of NCT, a popular boy band from SM Entertainment, one of the nation’s largest K-pop labels. His discography includes dozens of group albums and soundtracks for Korean dramas, including Netflix’s “Song of the Bandits” in 2023. His latest work was a solo track for the period piece “Missing Crown Prince,” which aired last year.
He was also a social media star. In 2021, Mr. Moon broke the Guinness World Record for being the fastest to reach a million followers on Instagram. His account, which had 4.3 million followers, is currently private and videos from his YouTube channel have been taken down.
Jin Yu Young reports on South Korea, the Asia Pacific region and global breaking news from Seoul.
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