Prosecution Appeals Against Himchan's First Trial Suspended Sentence for 'Sexual Assault and Indecent Act'

The prosecution has appealed the first trial verdict concerning Himchan (34, real name Kim Himchan), a former member of the idol group B.A.P, who was tried on charges including sexual assault and forcible molestation.

Former member Himchan of the idol group 'B.A.P'. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 7th that it has filed an appeal against the first trial verdict, which sentenced Himchan to three years in prison with a five-year probation for the charge of forcibly molesting a fan, raping her, and illegally filming her while he was undergoing trial for the forcible molestation case.

The prosecution stated the grounds for the appeal, saying, "This case involves the defendant's cunning crime of exploiting the victim's fandom, the defendant's very poor criminal nature including threatening, assaulting, and illegally filming the victim, and the fact that he committed this crime again while being tried for similar offenses."

Himchan was indicted for raping and illegally filming a victim whom he had taken home in May last year, and for sending obscene materials during contact with the victim in June of the same year.

At that time, Himchan was undergoing a second trial for a previously committed forcible molestation case. He was prosecuted in April the following year for sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s at a pension in Namyangju in July 2018. After being sentenced to 10 months in prison in the first trial in 2021, he was sentenced to the same term in the appeal trial held in February last year and was taken into custody.

In April 2022, he was also indicted in October of the same year for sexually assaulting two intoxicated women on the external stairs of a bar in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

The first trial court considered that Himchan admitted to all the crimes and that the victims did not wish for punishment, which were favorable circumstances, and sentenced him to three years in prison with a five-year probation. Additionally, considering that Himchan was intoxicated during all the crimes, the court imposed a special compliance condition prohibiting him from consuming alcohol with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05% or higher.

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