A 36 year old man is being investigated on charges of statutory rape, for having sexual relations with an 18 year old [18 Korean age = 16 or 17 international age]. Their messages sent over KakaoTalk are the primary source of evidence used to incriminate the man known as Ko Yeong-uk [고영욱]. Although police statements infer that the police are strongly against him, saying ‘we are looking for more evidence to convict him.’ A close acquaintance of Mr. Ko, defends Mr. Ko albeit inconsistently saying that Mr. Ko would never do such a thing or send such messages, that the girl only showed part of their KakaoTalk conversation and that it was the girl, not Mr. Ko who initiated the sexual relationship. Police report that Mr. Ko contacted the girl, suggest they go to a quiet place, gave her alcohol, had sex and suggested they continue to be sex partners.
Netizens are divided on the issue of how much blame Mr. Ko deserves with some feeling that the girl purposely tricked him so that she could sue him and get compensation money. The girl is only refereed to as Ms. A so as to protect her privacy, however Mr. Ko Yeong-uk has had his full name and picture published, before even being convicted.
From Nate:
Police are investigating 36 year old Ko Yeong-uk on charges of statutory rape. Mr. Ko broke his silence, offering the contents of his real life conversations with the 18 year old accuser Ms. A, stored on KakaoTalk as proof.
My Daily reported that someone very close to Ko Yeong-uk’s talked to them in an interview and complaining that ‘What was shown to the police as what Ko Yeong-uk sent to Ms. A on KakaoTalk, is far from the truth. He never even wrote that kind of thing on KakaoTalk.’
According to police, Ko Yeong-uk meet Ms. A via a cable tv program, at the end of March. First attracting her by telling her ‘I will help you become a celebrity.’ then after saying ‘Because you are a celebrity, it will be awkward if strangers find out, so let’s go to a quiet place.’ He then took her to his Office-tel (mixed use building where rooms can be used either for residential or commercial purposes), gave her some alcohol and then had sexual relations with her.
Afterwards it was seen through their KakaoTalk messages that Ms. A asked ‘what kind of relationship shall we have?’ and got the response ‘We are both fond of each other so I thing we will have good relationship.’ He later messaged her again letting her know he wanted to keep up their sexual relations.
Ko Yeong-uk close associate responded to this saying ‘The investigation still isn’t over yet. The situation is still not yet fully known, so there are a lot of parts we should be careful about before making judgments. There could be parts that weren’t sent, but said like Yeong-uk claimed, that might be really private and painful. All the messages sent over KakaoTalk to that girl, should be shared, as they are of interest. Even the extremely private content needs to be looked at, as it might end up solving this injustice.’
According to the friend, if you look at the conversation between Ko Yeong-uk and Ms.A, Ms. A was the first to suggest ‘let’s meet in a quiet place with no people.’ and furthermore Ms. A was the first one to take self pictures and send them to Ko Yeong-uk right after there first sexual encounter. Saying “Oppa(big brother) please send me some pictures too.” and that she was the one demanding a sexual relationship and making the situation very difficult for Yeong-uk. Also he didn’t know she was a minor. And furthermore after going to their meeting place she joking said ‘I guess I should report you for this eh?’ he added.
Meanwhile the investigation of Ko Yeong-uk by the Yongsan police department continues, and they applied for an arrest warrant on the 9th. But due to lack of evidence, as of the 10th they could not get an arrest warrant and are quickly working to gather more supporting evidence against him.
Comments from Nate:
김현겸:
As Ju Byeon-jin said ‘Even though I knew the incident would occur, I wasn’t thinking about the consequences at the time.’
I’m suddenly reminded of Ju Byeon-jin. Now, I’m not exactly trying to defend the guy here, but. Think about it, that anyone can write something that they think is ok, but then later it can come back to bite them in the butt. People need to think about the consequences before they act. [Ju Byeon-jin is a B-list celebrity who in the year 2000, was charged with sexual assault after taking a girl to his hotel room. The poster of the above comment seems to think the women in both these cases were just out to get the older men]
김수지:
Honestly this really doesn’t seem like something that was forced. I think they just started off dating, then moved to the next level in their relationship, then after accepting him the girl realised she was just being used as a friend with benefits, and got worked up once she saw the truth. She was silly for not thinking that people can change their mind whenever.
임창현:
I honestly wanna believe this guy’s story.
김현태:
Don’t lie about what happened, just speak honestly.~ Retard~ Anyway, because you did it with a minor, there isn’t any way out of this for you~ Also I have seen girls exactly like her~
오인섭:
I really don’t understand the best reply here (first comment translated) Whether it was made public or not, doing thing with a minor is illegal in itself. Why are people defending him?? Whether he knew what he was doing or didn’t he touched a minor is what’s important even if she is a working student. Why is allowed to use that as a defense?
이선경:
This guy is funny. ke ke. he is admitting his friend did it, when he says how is what he did wrong??????? ke ke. The dirty man is going to be in jail for two years.
이주호:
He did not leave it to chance, He gave her his private information, contacted her, lured her, and gave her alcohol. With this kind of process Ko Yeong-uk definitely planned it in advance, and then put his plan into action. It gives me chills. I wonder if this one female student is his only victim.
강민석:
Whether he meant to or not, he forced her into the public spotlight, by approaching her, giving her alcohol, and having a sexual relationship.
이주호:
What did you plan to do with the child’s phone number? You have no reasonable excuse for other purposes you may have had for meeting her. Instead you should have just rolled up your pants and beat your calves like a man and a humane person. You shouldn’t go after little girls without knowing your responsibilities, that is really pathetic.
김태완:
The moment he said he didn’t know she was a minor he lost all credibility. Sounds like a frequent excuse used by sex offenders. I hope he dies.
이지혜:
I don’t think she is a sex scammer… And if you put all the pieces of the story together, it looks like Ko Yeong-uk is a player! [negative connotations in Korean] Just like he always does, he felt a duty to make use her as his lover, so that is why he approach the pretty, young girl. Of course I don’t think it was his goal to do anything bad or abusive, he just has the habit of hitting on every girl he sees… I don’t think that from the start his goal was 100% to sleep with her… He just intended to bring her to his office-tel, chat with her and give her alcohol, but then they found they were right for each other and then consensually slept with each other. So it wasn’t sexual assault. The girl just became his lover, and then he meant to make her his girlfriend. He was going with the flow…. But after he slept with her, he changed his mind again…. No matter how rude Ko Yeong-uk was, she still slept with him to easy and seems like she will drop out of highschool, but Ko Yeong-uk should have known at his age… Whether or not he wants to date her as his girlfriend. So I think they texted each other just because they were fond of each other and thought they could have a good relationship. Or this might just be another case of a guy trying to have a method where he can sleep around without having to think about dating them~ But I think because he really liked her and wanted to date her, that he why he said let’s date.
