Hired Detective to Find Evidence of Affair and Monitor Wife... Guilty Under Stalking Punishment Act

Gwangju District Court Sentences Both Husband and Detective to Fines

A husband in his 40s who hired a private detective to find evidence of his wife’s affair during their separation, and a man in his 50s who conducted the surveillance, were fined on charges of stalking.

The Gwangju District Court Criminal Division 38 (Presiding Judge Lee Gwangheon) sentenced husband A (49), who was indicted for violating the Act on the Punishment of Stalking Crimes, to a fine of 500,000 won, according to Yonhap News on the 25th. The private detective B (51), who monitored A’s wife C, was fined 1,000,000 won.

A met B through an online search in June last year. A instructed B to follow and monitor his wife. At the time, A’s wife C was separated from him, and he commissioned this work to confirm whether she was committing adultery to use it in a divorce lawsuit.

B received 3,000,000 won from A as a service fee and took on the task. In June last year, B followed C’s workplace, residence, and daily spaces by car, monitoring her, and was prosecuted for stalking.

The court explained, “B actively searched for the whereabouts of the victim C by waiting for long hours and reported the results in detail to A. The victim felt anxious as she noticed a suspicious vehicle following her and repeatedly stopped the car to evade it.”

It added, “B’s actions, such as looking around inside C’s workplace building and questioning the parking lot manager, constitute stalking. It is difficult to consider this a lawful act permitted by social norms.” This was given as the reason for sentencing.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, the use of the title “detective” became possible with the revision of the Credit Information Protection Act in 2020. However, there is still no law that specifically regulates the official duties of detectives, making the clear scope of their work ambiguous.

Anyone can open a detective agency without restrictions, so there are believed to be hundreds of detective agencies in the country, mainly operating through social networking services (SNS). Some private institutions also issue private certificates after detective training.

However, activities such as recording or filming, which detective agencies mainly conduct, violate the Personal Information Protection Act if done secretly without the other party’s consent, and evidence obtained through illegal acts is not valid in court.