And it just earned its perpetrator a life sentence.
Kim Nok-wan has been found guilty of rape, sexual assault and illegal distribution of sexually explicit content in what prosecutors described as the biggest cybersex crime in South Korea’s history. Many of Nok-wan’s 261 victims were minors.
In 2020, hiding behind the alias “Pastor,” Nok-wan began his rampage, producing more than 1,000 sexually explicit videos or images of victims and raping more than a dozen people, while running an online blackmail ring via Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.
“Most of the victims were children or adolescents.”
“The methods that the defendant employed throughout his criminal process are cruel and heinous,” the Seoul Central District Court wrote in a news release. “It is impossible to avoid a sentence that permanently removes the defendant from society.”
The business model was simple: Target men seeking a “safe place” to see sexually explicit material. Set up a secret chatroom providing just that. Make the customers’ admittance to the chatroom conditional on proving they aren’t law enforcement. How? By sharing personal information about themselves and about their female acquaintances, and by forwarding sexually explicit images of themselves.
Now armed with blackmail data, Nok-wan would threaten to expose customers as sexual predators unless they recruited further customers or provided even more explicit photos of themselves. Some did as they were told, recruiting new targets, with new recruits, in turn, presented with the same terms as their recruiters: more explicit photos, more recruits, or your dirty secret is out to your spouse, your parents, your co-workers, your children.
The result: a pyramid-like extortion racket producing and sharing sexual images.
“Most of the victims were children or adolescents, and it appears they would have suffered extreme physical and psychological pain as a result of the crimes,” the court said.
Those who complied and coerced others into Nok-wan’s swindle thereby became accomplices, with 10—half of them minors—given prison terms ranging from two to four years. They knew what they were doing—knew what would happen to those they recruited—but saw no way out. It was either do Nok-wan’s bidding or see sexual images of themselves circulated widely.
Nok-wan’s other targets were the females whose personal information had been shared by his male victims. This time the options were: cash, more explicit photos or meet with Nok-wan offline for sex.
Thus the grim pyramid grew: at least 16 victims of rape or assault, including 14 minors, with videos of over a dozen of his victims made by Nok-wan. In total, according to the court, he produced 1,700 sexually explicit videos or images of at least 70 minors.
“Digital sex crimes can rapidly amplify the damages of the victims to an irreparable level in the digital space,” the court said in a statement. “Once sexually exploitative materials are distributed, it’s physically very difficult to completely remove them, making recovery from damage practically impossible.”
But the damage isn’t limited to the digital realm. Time won’t heal the shattered lives wrought by Nok-wan and other sexual predators; it leaves only a festering wound in a heart taught to never trust again.
