A 30-year-old man who illegally filmed his lover was sentenced to a reduced sentence on appeal... “Consideration of victim agreement and first offense”

A man in his 30s who was tried and sentenced to prison on charges of taking pictures of the body of a woman he was dating had his sentence commuted on appeal.

According to the legal community on the 12th, the 2-3 Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court recently sentenced Mr. A, in his 30s, to 6 months in prison and 1 year of probation, who was indicted on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (filming and distributing using cameras, etc.).

Mr. A was brought to trial on charges of filming sex scenes with Mr. B, his then-lover, without consent on several occasions from April to September 2020.

In the first trial, the court ruled that Mr. A was "bad in his method of crime and the nature of his crime is not good. Mr. B is complaining of mental pain and is pleading for the defendant to be severely punished," and sentenced him to 8 months in prison and placed him under court custody.

Afterwards, both Mr. A and the prosecution appealed against the first trial ruling, and Mr. A's legal representative appealed for leniency in the appeal trial, saying, "Mr. A sincerely apologized to Mr. B, and after making efforts to recover from the damage, he was forgiven. Mr. A has no history of being punished other than this incident and is deeply reflecting."

As a result, the appellate court accepted Mr. A's argument that the original trial's sentence was too heavy. The court revealed the reason for the reduced sentence, saying, “We made a comprehensive judgment considering various sentencing conditions, such as the fact that the defendant admits the crime, the fact that Mr. B does not want Mr. A to be punished by agreement at the trial, and the fact that it is his first offense.”

Mr. A's legal representative, Shin Seong-min, a lawyer at the Daeryun Law Firm, explained, "As the number of illegal filming crimes increases, there is a recent trend of people being sentenced to imprisonment even for first-time offenders. Sexual crime cases must be responded to in stages with the assistance of legal experts from the beginning."

Reporter Jeong Cheol-wook

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A man in his 30s who illegally filmed his lover receives a reduced sentence on appeal... “Consideration of victim agreement and first offense” (Shortcut)