Man in His 20s Charged With Filming Sex Video of Ex-Girlfriend Acquitted on Appeal... Only Testimony That 'the Back View Looks Similar,' No Physical Evidence

A man in his 20s who had received a suspended sentence on charges of secretly filming himself having sex with his ex-girlfriend was found not guilty on appeal.

On the 27th, according to the legal community, Criminal Division 1-3 of the Daejeon High Court, on the 3rd, overturned the lower court, which had sentenced Mr. A—charged with violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses—to 2 years and 6 months in prison with 3 years' probation, and acquitted him.

Mr. A was brought to trial on charges of secretly filming, with his mobile phone, a scene of sexual intercourse with his then-girlfriend Ms. B, a minor whom he was dating in 2021.

During the investigation stage, Mr. A's mobile phone was subjected to forensic analysis, but no direct physical evidence such as a video was found.

However, the first-instance court recognized guilt based on the testimony of a classmate who said he had personally seen the sex video stored on Mr. A's mobile phone. The classmate testified that he had heard from Mr. A that the woman in the video was Ms. B, and that the hairstyle of the woman in the video, with long straight hair, was the same as Ms. B's.

The first-instance court judged the testimony credible, finding that the classmate had testified in such specific detail—about the season and clothing when he saw the video, the circumstances in which he came to see it, and the content of the video—that it would be difficult to fabricate without direct experience.

However, the appellate court judged that the classmate's testimony alone could not conclude that the woman in the video was Ms. B. This was because only the back view of the woman in the video was filmed, so her face could not be confirmed, and the long straight hairstyle is common among women of the same age group. The court found it could not completely rule out the possibility that Mr. A, who was a high school student at the time of the incident, had bragged that the woman in the video was Ms. B even though it was actually someone else.

Byun Kwan-hoon, the Daeryun LLC attorney who represented Mr. A on appeal, said, "When there is no direct physical evidence to prove the charged facts and an eyewitness's testimony becomes the sole evidence, its content must be free from reasonable doubt," adding, "We were able to obtain an acquittal as a result of impeaching the credibility of the classmate's testimony by logically pointing out the underlying context—including the fact that the classmate's testimony alone could not identify the woman in the video and the characteristics of Mr. A, who was a high school student at the time."

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Man in His 20s Charged With Filming Sex Video of Ex-Girlfriend Acquitted on Appeal... Only Testimony That 'the Back View Looks Similar,' No Physical Evidence
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