Poet Park Jin-seong Legally Detained for Revealing Real Name and ID of Woman Accusing Sexual Harassment

Poet Park Jin-seong (43), who was indicted for defamation after revealing the real name and resident registration card of a woman who accused him of sexual harassment on his social networking service (SNS), was sentenced to prison and detained in court in the appellate trial.

According to the legal community on the 9th, the 4th Criminal Appeals Division of Daejeon District Court (Chief Judge Gu Chang-mo) overturned the original sentence of one year in prison with two years of probation and sentenced Park to one year and eight months in prison in the appellate trial for defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

Daejeon High Court. [Photo by Yonhap News]

Park sent multiple messages such as "If you don't accept me as a lover, I will kill myself" and repeatedly demanded "Let's be lovers" to Ms. A (then 17 years old), whom he met while conducting poetry lessons online in late September 2015, until October of the following year, sending several messages that caused sexual humiliation.

Ms. A disclosed the damage in October 2016, when the literary Me Too movement was taking place.

In response, from March 29 to November 26, 2019, Park posted 11 messages on his SNS such as "False accusations are serious crimes" and "I hope no one is falsely labeled as a sexual offender," and was indicted for defaming Ms. B. Park also posted Ms. A's resident registration card and revealed her real name on his SNS.

Earlier, the first trial court sentenced him to one year in prison with two years of probation, stating, "Although the defendant caused serious harm to the victim by disclosing personal information including the defendant's real name, the defendant withdrew the appeal of the related civil case."

However, the second trial sentenced him to a heavier sentence of one year and eight months in prison and detained him in court.

The court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "The defendant denied his crimes and only after the indictment was filed did he close his Twitter account and claim to have reflected by participating in a campaign to post positive comments. However, he never took actions to stop the baseless personal attacks against the victim, nor did he show efforts to empathize with her pain. Considering that the victim still suffers extreme mental distress due to the defendant's actions and is pleading for severe punishment, the original sentence was too light and unfair."