'Sexual Assault Allegations' Famous TikToker Receives 'Suspended Sentence'

A famous TikToker in his 20s, accused of sexually assaulting a woman while drinking together with an acquaintance, has received a confirmed suspended prison sentence.

On the 16th, the legal community reported that the Supreme Court's first panel (Chief Justice Noh Tae-ak) upheld the original ruling, which sentenced a man in his 20s, Mr. Seo, to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 2-year probation for violations of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, following his indictment on September 13.

Mr. Seo is accused of taking a woman he was drinking with to the home of acquaintance A in July 2023 and sexually assaulting her together.

They were arrested and indicted in December of the same year. The prosecution applied the charge of joint aggravated rape, believing that Mr. Seo and A jointly sexually assaulted the woman.

Previously, the first trial court had sentenced Mr. Seo to 3 years and 6 months in prison, but the second trial court found "no evidence to acknowledge that the acts of sexual intercourse occurred consecutively or sequentially," and thus only recognized the charge of quasi-rape, sentencing him to 1 year and 6 months in prison with 2 years probation.

The prosecution filed an appeal but the Supreme Court dismissed it, stating that there were no errors in the second trial’s ruling.

The second trial court noted that Mr. Seo had reached an agreement with the victim and that the victim did not wish for punishment against him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Seo, who has over 55 million followers on the short-form platform TikTok and gained popularity among netizens with various parody videos, suspended his activities following the incident.

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