Pop star jailed for six years for rape, other crimes

South Korean singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young was convicted Friday of gang rape and distributing videos of the assaults, and was jailed for six years in a scandal that has rocked K-pop.

Jung and Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of boy band FT Island, were found guilty of gang-raping two different victims on two occasions in 2016.

It is the highest-profile example of an epidemic of spycam crimes in South Korea, which have prompted widespread anger and seen women demonstrating in Seoul.

Jung distributed his videos in mobile chatrooms with recipients including fellow K-pop star Seungri of BIGBANG, who has been accused of illegal gambling.

Jung was jailed for six years and Choi, 29, for five, the Seoul Central District Court said. The court added that “they should assume social responsibility in proportion to their fame and wealth.”

Both men wept when the sentences were announced.

But while the minimum sentence for rape in South Korea is three years most online commentators said the penalties were too lenient.

“The victims have to live in agony for the next 60 years, not just six,” one poster wrote on the country’s largest portal site Naver.

Another added: “I hear they burst into tears at sentencing. The victims will live in tears for the rest of their lives.”

‘Cannot be forgiven’

Jung rose to fame in 2012 when he came third in the audition show “Super Star K” and had a number of solo hits before the video scandal broke in March, when he announced his retirement.

At the time the rape accusations had yet to emerge, but he said he had “committed crimes that cannot be forgiven”.

“I apologise to the women victims who are suffering because of me,” and his fans, he said, adding he would “spend the rest of my life reflecting on my wrongdoings”.

There was no immediate statement from his lawyers or his record company Friday.