Serial Offender Caught Again: Man Faces Harsher Sentence for Repeated Secret Filming

A man in his 20s, who was previously granted leniency on two occasions for illegal filming, has received a harsher sentence on appeal for once again secretly recording women.

The Criminal Division 1 of the Chuncheon District Court, presided over by Judge Shim Hyun Geun, sentenced the individual to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, on October 26. He was found guilty of violating South Korea’s Sexual Violence Punishment Act by repeatedly filming women and unlawfully entering women’s restrooms.

In addition to probation, the court mandated that he complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment courses and imposed a three-year ban on employment in institutions related to children and adolescents.

He was charged with secretly filming women 28 times between November 2018 and April 2023, including an incident last April where he filmed up a woman’s skirt on an escalator at a subway station in Seoul.

He is also accused of unlawfully entering a women’s restroom in a karaoke studio between August and December 2019 in an attempt to film women using the toilet secretly.

The initial court had sentenced him to 1 year in prison, suspended for 3 years, considering that the videos he filmed had not been distributed.

The appellate court, reviewing the prosecution’s claim that the sentence was too lenient, noted, “Despite having received one juvenile protection order and one deferred prosecution for similar offenses, he has shown no remorse and continued to commit crimes over an extended period.”

The court further emphasized, “Illegal filming not only inflicts severe sexual humiliation on victims but also instills significant anxiety in the public when using restrooms. Given the considerable social harm, a severe penalty is warranted,” leading to an increased sentence.

Furthermore, the appellate court imposed an employment restriction at institutions related to children and adolescents, which was not included in the original sentence.