Update on Kang In-gyeong Case: Convict Sentenced to 10 Years for Sexual Assault Gets Probation on Appeal

The court also overturned the original sentence that handed down 1 year imprisonment to B (47), current CEO of a production company, who was jointly indicted on charges of producing sexually exploitative material under the law on sexual protection of children and adolescents, and instead sentenced him to 1 year imprisonment with 2 years of suspended sentence.

The court also ordered both of them to complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment programs.

The appellate court found that the core evidence—the victims' statements—did not match objective data or lacked consistency, and acquitted A of all charges except for producing and possessing sexually exploitative material involving minors.

Accordingly, the false accusation charge that the original court found guilty was overturned to acquittal.

The court stated, "We do not determine that all of the victims' statements are false, but to establish guilt in criminal trial, the alleged facts must be proven beyond reasonable doubt," and "It is difficult to say that the alleged facts were proven by testimony alone."

The court also stated, "Some models freely engaged in activities on other platforms without exclusive contracts, making it difficult to say the defendant exercised influence to the extent of restricting the models' decision-making," and denied the psychological control (gaslighting) relationship between A and the models that the first-instance court recognized.

The appellate court went through the victims' statements one by one and stated, "There are numerous aspects that are difficult to view as general behavior, such as the defendant and victims watching movies alone, recommending acquaintances as company models, or consulting on sensitive personal information before and after claiming to have been harmed."