South Korean Sex Ring Mastermind, 25, Gets 40 Years in Prison

Cho Ju-bin, the leader of South Korea’s largest online sex abuse rings has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, dodging the life imprisonment prosecutors were pushing for his crimes.

The Case: Cho Ju-bin was arrested in March along with over 120 others after journalism students came across the Telegram groups and notified the police, CNN reported.

Users of the messaging app Telegram pay up to $1,200 to gain access to the explicit videos.
Among the 74 women who were forced to upload the sex videos, 16 were children.
According to authorities, the chatrooms the ring ran attracted more than 10,000 paying users.
Cho’s case sparked national outrage in South Korea, forcing the authorities to lift his anonymity and reveal his name to the public.
Following his arrest, Cho was “indicted under 15 charges of producing and distributing illegal sexual visual material, forced sexual abuse, rape, sexual harassment, blackmailing, recording sexually abusive behaviors, coercion, violation of private information protection, and fraud.”

The verdict: Last week, Seoul Central District Court found the 25-year-old mastermind guilty of violating laws to protect children from sexual abuse and running a syndicate that posted sex videos of coerced young girls in pay-to-view chatrooms, according to BBC.

The court found that Cho lured and threatened the victims so he can gather content to sell online.
Cho was also deemed guilty of instructing a third party to directly rape a minor.
In addition to the prison sentence, Cho will be forced to wear an electronic ankle bracelet for 30 years and pay a fine of 10.64 million Korean won ($9,760).
Five of Cho’s collaborators also received sentences ranging from seven to 15 years in prison.

Featured Image Screenshot via Reuters

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