Man in his 30s accused of requesting to send explicit photos of minors in court... Story of evading court arrest

Conversation for the purpose of sexual exploitation of minors can be punishable by imprisonment even without sexual contact.
Incheon District Court Judge Kim Saet-byeol, considering sentencing factors such as first offense, victim agreement, etc., sentenced to probation

A decision was made to sentence a man in his 30s to a suspended prison sentence for exchanging explicit photos with a minor victim using a chat app.

Judge Kim Saet-byeol of the Incheon District Court's Criminal Division 11 recently sentenced Mr. A (32 years old), who was indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Adolescents from Sex (“Juvenile Sexual Protection Act”) (conversation for the purpose of sexual exploitation, etc.), to “4 months in prison and 2 years of probation.”

According to the prosecution's indictment, Mr. A was accused of having an obscene chat with a victim he met through a chat app in March 2023 and receiving body photos a total of 12 times. He was also charged with sending messages requesting obscene acts more than 100 times.

The victim's age at the time was confirmed to be 15 years old.

Conversation for the purpose of sexual exploitation of minors is a crime newly established in Article 15-2 of the Youth Sexual Protection Act in 2021 to punish the act of repeating sexual conversations among the crimes of ‘online grooming’. The statutory penalty is ‘imprisonment for up to 3 years or a fine not exceeding 30 million won’, so it is a serious crime that can be sentenced to imprisonment even if there is no sexual contact.

In particular, if you engage in conversation for the purpose of sexual exploitation while recognizing the other person as a minor, you will be subject to more severe punishment.

In this criminal trial, Mr. A's legal representative argued that the defendant did not intentionally approach the victim, and that he committed the crime after being unable to withstand the temptation of the victim who continued to actively engage in sexual conversation while he was psychologically weak due to financial difficulties.

In addition, it was argued that Mr. A was a first-time offender who had never been punished other than this incident, and that he had reached an agreement with the victim and expressed his intention that the victim did not want Mr. A punished.

Shin Yong-hoon, a lawyer at Daeryun Law Firm (Lihan), who represented Mr. “Things could have been taken into consideration,” he explained.

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