A man in his 30s who posted a threat of a mass shooting on an online community was acquitted of the charges related to that threat.
However, he was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation for illegally filming sexual intercourse with a woman.
The Criminal Division 6 of Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam delivered this verdict on the 19th in a sentencing hearing for Mr. A.
According to the court, Mr. A was accused of posting a threatening message on an online community on August 4 last year from a residence in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, stating that he would kill 18 people at a cosmetics store near Gangnam Station in Seoul.
Along with a photo of the alleged crime scene, he posted messages such as, “Tomorrow at 2 PM at the Gangnam Station cosmetics store, no knife stabbing, shotgun party,” and “I will shoot the police too.”
At the time of the incident, there had been so-called weapon rampage incidents at Sillim Station and Seohyeon Station, resulting in dozens of casualties, and various killing threat posts were being uploaded online.
The location Mr. A threatened was a well-known cosmetics brand store, but no such store existed near Gangnam Station at the time, and no shotgun was found at Mr. A’s residence where he was apprehended.
Mr. A was also indicted on charges of illegally filming and possessing footage of sexual intercourse with sex workers 33 times from May 2017 to June 2023 at motels and officetels in the Seoul metropolitan area.
The footage was discovered on Mr. A’s smartphone and storage devices (external hard drive) during the investigation that led to his arrest for posting the threatening messages.
The court stated, “Mr. A posted a threat of a shotgun shooting at a cosmetics store that did not exist at the time, using photos of unrelated business locations, so the targeted place and himself do not match, and it is difficult to see the harmful content as something that would cause fear to victims.”
It added, “There is no evidence to prove that the 112 callers and viewers of the posts, who lived in different areas at the time, planned to visit Gangnam Station on the date Mr. A threatened,” and “It is difficult to consider Mr. A’s actions as notifying harm to victims.”
Furthermore, the court noted, “The unspecified many citizens using Gangnam Station cannot be specifically identified by victim, nor can it be seen that the victims’ explicit consent or intention was confirmed.”
Regarding the illegal filming charge, the court said, “All the charges are recognized as guilty,” and explained the sentencing by considering “the considerable number of recordings, Mr. A’s remorse, his first offense, and the absence of any evidence that the footage was distributed.”
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