Court Sentences 'n번방' Watchman to 7 Years in Prison... "Doubtful if He Repents for the Crime"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The court sentenced the former operator of the Telegram chatroom 'n번방' (n Room), known as 'Watchman,' to seven years in prison for producing and distributing illegal sexual exploitation videos involving minors.

On the 16th, Judge Min Park of the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 9 sentenced Jeon Mo (38), who was charged with violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, among other charges, under the Telegram nickname 'Watchman.' The court also ordered him to complete 120 hours of sexual violence treatment programs, disclose and notify information for 10 years, and imposed a 10-year employment restriction at child and youth-related institutions and welfare facilities for the disabled. Judge Park stated, "The defendant had previously been sentenced to one year in prison with a three-year probation for distributing photos exposing women's bodies, but instead of refraining from wrongdoing during the probation period, he committed crimes more meticulously," adding, "Considering the defendant's attitude, it is doubtful whether he deeply regrets his crimes."

Judge Park acknowledged all charges against Jeon as guilty and criticized, "The defendant harmed the sound sexual consciousness of society and caused serious consequences by widely distributing a large amount of obscene material to an unspecified number of people." He also pointed out, "He established a website with servers overseas to evade investigation, displayed banner ads, received sponsorships to seek financial gain, and posted articles on how to counter investigative agencies, showing contempt for public authority."

Jeon is accused of opening the Telegram chatroom 'Godam Bang' from April to September last year, openly displaying over 10,000 obscene materials by linking to four other chatrooms sharing pornography. Investigations revealed that among these were over 100 photos and videos related to children and adolescents. Prior to this, Jeon was indicted in October last year for operating a pornography site and was additionally indicted in February for charges related to the 'n번방' case.

Earlier, the prosecution requested a sentence of three years and six months in prison at the March sentencing hearing, but after facing severe criticism for the 'lenient punishment,' they applied for a retrial. Following supplementary investigations, they added charges of sexual crimes for profit and increased the requested sentence to ten years and six months at the sentencing hearing held on the 19th of last month, tripling the original demand.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.