K-pop star Goo Ha-ra's ex-boyfriend jailed for sex video blackmail

Choi Jong-bum, a former boyfriend of late K-pop singer Goo Ha-ra, enters the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

By Lee Gyu-lee

Late K-pop star Goo Ha-ra's ex-boyfriend has been jailed for blackmailing her over sex videos that eventually led her to her apparent suicide.

A panel of three judges sentenced Choi Jong-bum, 29, to one year in prison, Thursday, overturning a lower court's 18-month sentence suspended for three years.

Before her death on Nov. 24, 2019, Goo, a member of now-disbanded girl group Kara, told media that Choi had threatened to leak their sex videos. Surveillance video footage showed the singer kneeling before him.

"Sexual relations are the most intimate part of one's privacy, so threatening to leak the video would have imposed irreversible damage on the victim and destroyed her reputation," the court said in the ruling.

"Given that the victim was a famous celebrity, the defendant was evidently aware that the degree of damage would be very serious. Yet, he worsened the crime by using it against her and threatening to leak it to the media."

But the court said there was "not sufficient evidence" that she did not consent to be filmed.

Her death again turned the spotlight on the country's epidemic of spycam crimes, which have become a major social problem in recent years.

Goo's brother Ho-in expressed mixed feelings about the ruling, saying the penalty was still too lenient.

"I do take it as a small comfort that he received a real prison sentence this time," he told reporters. "The fact he was not found guilty for the illegally taped video, and (receiving) a one-year sentence still feels unfair."

Goo focused on her solo career after Kara broke up in 2016 and toured Japan with her latest release shortly before her death.

The news came only a month after Sulli ― a K-pop star and her friend ― took her own life after years of struggle with stress and online bullying.

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