Coach Referred to Prosecution for Filming Student Nude and Sharing in Group Chat

Violation of the Child Welfare Act and the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes

A coach of a middle school sports team in North Chungcheong Province has been handed over to the prosecution on charges of filming and distributing nude images of a student with intellectual disabilities.

According to Yonhap News on May 8, the North Chungcheong Provincial Police Agency referred Mr. A (in his 30s), a coach of a middle school sports team in the province, to the prosecution without detention on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act and the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.

Police image.

Mr. A is accused of filming the nude images of student B, who has an intellectual disability and whom he was coaching, with his mobile phone at his home between November and December last year, and sharing them in a group chat on a social networking service (SNS) with other members of the sports team.

According to the police investigation, Mr. A repeatedly shared photos and videos of student B taken while they were living together at Mr. A’s home, and exchanged mocking conversations with the students.

It has been reported that Mr. A told the police that it “was just a prank.”

The incident came to light in February this year when a parent of one of the students in the group chat discovered the video and informed the school.

However, the school did not report the incident to the police for two weeks. The school notified the school police officer (SPO) and formally requested a police investigation only after Jinhee Park, a member of the North Chungcheong Provincial Council, raised the issue on social media.

A school official explained, “The day after becoming aware of the incident, we told the victim’s parents that we would report it to the police, but as they did not want the case to be escalated, we could not report it immediately,” adding, “It was not an attempt to handle the matter internally.”

Mr. A resigned from the school after the allegations were raised.

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