Singers and 3 friends may have raped me: Woman

Police launched a probe Friday into allegations that singer Jung Joon-young and former FT Island member Choi Jong-hoon gang-raped a woman in March 2016.

The alleged victim told a local media outlet Thursday that she may have been forced into having sex with them after passing out for an unknown reason.

Jung and Choi are already being investigated by prosecutors for allegedly recording sex tapes with numerous women without their consent and sharing the videos on the chat app KakaoTalk.

In an interview with SBS funE published Thursday, the woman said she was introduced to Jung in 2012 by a mutual acquaintance. One of her friends dated former Big Bang member Seungri, who's close to Jung and Choi, which is why they often got together to hang out and became friends - and why she thought she had no reason to believe she was raped by Jung and Choi.

The victim said she had six photos and an audio file that hints she was raped three years ago by Jung, Choi and three other men.

The photos and audio file were said to have been shared in a group conversation on KakaoTalk that was participated in by the five men. The victim was not in the group chat.

The three other were allegedly a businessman and two employees of the Burning Sun, a night club in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, that Seungri had a stake in before he shut it down in the wake of his own sex and police protection scandal.

Seungri is also accused of sharing raunchy chats via KakaoTalk with friends, including Jung and Choi, but not this one.

After the sex tape scandal engulfed Jung and Choi earlier this year, the victim said she asked Choi whether she was taped. Choi replied that she was never mentioned in the group chat and told her not to worry.

Suspicious, the victim emailed the lawyer who had possession of the raunchy group chats, asking whether she was mentioned in them.

The victim told the lawyer the date and place she thinks she might have been raped. The lawyer replied, saying there was an audio recording and six photos that appeared to be her.

The victim told SBS funE that she and the five men went out for drinks one night in March 2016 and completed three rounds before they went to a nearby hotel for a fourth round.

After a single shot, she said, she passed out and can’t remember what happened next. When she awoke the next morning, she was naked. Choi was lying beside her, laughing.

In the audio recording, the victim said it sounded as if she was being raped. The photos showed her lying unconscious as the men made gestures that suggested they were sexually abusing her.

Conversations shared in the group chat the next day, she said, had Jung using a slang term that meant rape. Choi said he tried hard not to laugh in order to rape her.

The victim says she doesn’t know why she passed out. Local media are speculating she could have been drugged.

Choi’s lawyer said the former FT Island member did not rape the woman. The other men made no public statement on the accusation Friday.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN, KWEN YU-JIN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]