Teenagers lure men for casual meetings, then threaten and assault them... Referred to juvenile court

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Teenagers who lured adult men with the bait of conditional meetings, assaulted them, and extorted money by filming naked videos received leniency in the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Seoul Eastern District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Yoon Kyung-ah) decided to transfer five defendants, including A (18), who were indicted on charges such as robbery and injury, to the Juvenile Division of the Seoul Family Court.

The court recognized all the charges as guilty but judged that it was necessary to give them an opportunity for reflection, thus making this decision. According to the Juvenile Act (Article 50), which allows transfer to the Juvenile Division if there are grounds for protective measures after hearing cases involving minors under 19 years old, the Family Court Juvenile Division can impose dispositions such as entrusting the juveniles to guardians instead of criminal punishment or sending them to juvenile detention centers.

Last November, A and others posted a message on a chat application proposing conditional meetings and called B, who contacted them after seeing the post, to a motel in Seoul. The youngest, C (15), delayed time by talking with B, while the others entered the room and threatened and assaulted B, saying they would report the fact of underage prostitution to the police. It was investigated that they filmed B’s naked video and extorted about 5.6 million won using it as leverage.

Three male students including A also took B’s car keys and confined him in the car for about three hours. They threatened B into signing a rental car contract and drove two vehicles without a license.

A was also indicted and found guilty last October for threatening a police officer during a crackdown by hanging onto a car and driving about 5 meters (special obstruction of official duties).

The court pointed out, "The guilt is not light as they lured the victim with the purpose of easily obtaining money and inflicted injury," but also stated, "The defendants, aged 15 to 18, are still immature and incomplete in their judgment abilities."

Earlier, in their final statements, A and others said, "While serving time, we realized the importance of family and the pain of the victim," and "We will never do such actions again and want to live with a student name tag, not a prison inmate number."

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