"20s Sentenced to Longer Term on Appeal for Producing and Distributing Obscene Material by Synthesizing Nude Photos onto Friend's Younger Sister's Face"

Sentenced to 3 Years Imprisonment

Distribution of obscene materials. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Yeeun] A man in his 20s who superimposed the faces of acquaintances onto nude photos and distributed them has been sentenced to prison. Unlike the first trial, which acquitted some charges on the grounds that the "compositing was crude," the appellate court increased the sentence.

On the 6th, the Criminal Division 3 of the Daejeon High Court (Presiding Judge Jeong Jae-o) overturned the original sentence of 1 year and 6 months imprisonment and sentenced A (23), who was detained and prosecuted on charges of editing and distributing false videos under the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, to 3 years in prison.

Additionally, A was ordered to complete 40 hours of sexual violence treatment programs and was banned from employment at institutions related to children and adolescents for 7 years.

Earlier, in August of last year, A superimposed the faces of elementary school classmates or friends’ younger sisters onto downloaded nude photos of women and male genitalia from the internet. It was investigated that some of the victims were minors.

He was also found to have distributed the composite photos by posting them on his SNS or sending them via direct messages (DM) to others. Using this method, he edited, composited, and processed obscene materials likely to cause sexual shame against 7 people in 16 instances until November of last year.

However, the first trial court acquitted some charges on the grounds that the compositing technique was crude and sentenced him to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment.

At that time, the court stated, "Since advanced photo compositing technology was not used, it is easy to detect that the faces or bodies were composited from different people," and "From the perspective of an ordinary person with common sense, it is difficult to conclude that it would cause abnormal sexual impulses targeting children or adolescents."

In response, the prosecution immediately appealed, arguing that there was sufficient evidence to consider the photos as child and adolescent materials, citing that some composite photos included victim IDs with numbers that could infer the age (mid-teens).

In the second trial, the appellate court stated, "The defendant knew the victims’ personal information such as names and accounts through Instagram," and "Since the defendant was aware that the victims were adolescents, the original court’s acquittal of some charges simply because the compositing was crude was incorrect," sentencing him to 3 years in prison.

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