Cho Joo Bin, main operator of the Telegram chatrooms in the biggest sex scandal, has been sentenced to 40 years of jail term. Also known as Baksa by his customers, Cho was found guilty of running a racket in South Korea that blackmailed girls and forced them to record and send sexual abuse videos that were posted in pay-to-view chatrooms.
He was pronounced guilty by the Seoul Central District Court. "The accused has widely distributed sexually abusive content that he created by luring and threatening many victims," said the court according to Yonhap News Agency. Apart from producing abusive sexual videos, Cho was also charged with violating laws that protect children from sexual abuse.
After the sentencing, Yonhap agency cited the judge who pronounced the judgement and sated: "The defendant had lured and threatened multiple victims in various ways to produce pornography and distributed it for a long time to many. He in particular inflicted irrecoverable damage to many victims by publishing their identifies."
Cho Joo Bin's Face, Identity Revealed to Public
At least 103 women including 26 minor girls were said to be the victims of Cho Joo Bin's chartrooms. The nature of the crime was such that at least five million people signed a petition to reveal the face of the accused to the public, even before the verdict was announced.
Following the demand, first time in the history of South Korea, the face and identity of Cho Joo Bin was shown to the public in March 2020, shortly after his arrest. 25-year-old graduate Cho had apologized to the public and had said that he was sorry towards those whom he had hurt. "Thank you for putting a brake on the life of a devil that could not be stopped," Cho had said.
More than 3,7000 videos and pictures of sexual abuse were shared and sold to more than 260,000 people who were users of these chatrooms. They had made payments in cryptocurrency to remain anonymous.
Police have said at least 124 suspects were arrested and 18 operators of chatrooms on Telegram and other social media, including Cho. Five others involved in the Telegram chatroom case have been sentenced to jail term between seven and 15 years.
