30s Given Suspended Sentence for Producing and Managing Pornographic Sites and Aiding Distribution of 80,000 Pornographic Materials

On the 3rd, the Chuncheon District Court's 1st Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Kim Cheong-mi) sentenced Mr. A, who was indicted for aiding the distribution of obscene materials, to one year in prison with a two-year probation period.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] A man in his 30s who was prosecuted for creating a pornographic website and managing its server for 1 year and 5 months, thereby aiding the distribution of over 83,000 pornographic materials, was sentenced to probation again in the second trial.

The Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Kim Cheong-mi) announced on the 3rd that it dismissed the appeal of Mr. A (37), who was charged with aiding the distribution of pornographic materials in violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc., and upheld the original sentence (1 year imprisonment with 2 years probation).

The second trial court explained the sentencing rationale, stating, "In determining the defendant's sentence, it is necessary to consider the proportionality with the criminal punishment received by the site operator (1 year and 6 months imprisonment with 3 years probation, etc.), and also take into account that the profits obtained by the defendant have been confiscated. Therefore, the original sentence appears appropriate."

Earlier, Mr. A was prosecuted on charges of creating a pornographic website in December 2018 after being requested to open an internet pornographic site around November 2018, maintaining and repairing the site by frequently changing the domain and IP address, and managing the server.

It is known that through the site created and managed by Mr. A, over 72,000 members posted or downloaded more than 83,000 pornographic materials, including sexual intercourse videos.

In the first trial, the court stated, "It is an unfavorable circumstance that due to the defendant's aiding act, 83,760 pornographic materials were distributed and advertisements for 17 prostitution establishments were posted over 1 year and 5 months," but added, "However, the defendant only created and managed the pornographic site as an engineer under others' instructions and did not operate the site itself, and the proceeds obtained from the aiding act were about 6.2 million KRW, which is significantly different from the site operator's profits," and sentenced him to 1 year imprisonment with 2 years probation.