Police refer Miryang rape case doxxers to prosecutors for defamation

Social Affairs

Published: 22 Jul. 2024, 16:48

Police refer Miryang rape case doxxers to prosecutors for defamation

The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency building in Changwon, South Gyeongsang [GYEONGNAM PROVINCIAL POLICE AGENCY]

Police on Monday transferred eight people who doxxed perpetrators of the 2004 Miryang gang rape case to the prosecution.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency said they referred a YouTuber and seven bloggers to the prosecution on defamation charges for sharing personal information without consent in violation of the Information Protection Act.

According to the police, a total of 469 complaints and petitions have been filed regarding the online doxxing of the assailants in the Miryang case as of Friday. Police have been looking into 192 of them, of which eight were transferred to the prosecution.

The Miryang gang rape case involved at least 44 high school students who repeatedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old middle school girl, identified by her surname Choi, over the course of a year in Miryang, South Gyeongsang, in 2004. Both the victim's sister and cousin were also assaulted.

Despite the horrific nature of the crime, however, none of the 44 teenage assailants received criminal prosecutions because they were juveniles at the time.

Ten of the assailants who directly took part in the sexual assault were indicted and sentenced to probation, and 20 were sent to juvenile detention centers, a penalty that does not leave any criminal record. The remaining 14 offenders either settled with the victim or were released because their names were not included in a complaint.

The case reignited outrage in June after a YouTuber uploaded videos claiming to identify the assailants. More YouTubers and bloggers joined the effort to reveal the perpetrators' identities.

Those exposed in these videos have been filing complaints against the online doxxers for disclosing their personal information without permission.

In an SBS investigative program aired on Saturday, Choi's sister said that she requested the YouTuber to take down the videos as soon as she found out, afraid that the perpetrators would take revenge. Following the video uploads in June, Choi and her sister released a statement through the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, which has been representing the victims since 2004, that they had never agreed to the identity reveal.

According to the SBS show, they only recently became aware that no perpetrators received criminal punishment after the judgment was revealed online.

"We were young at the time and did not know how the case would unfold," Choi said. "We thought that just by giving our testimony, everyone would be punished."

There were also accusations that police in Miryang mistreated the victims and failed to investigate thoroughly. A remark from a police officer who said that the victim ruined the town's reputation also incited public anger.

In 2008, the Seoul High Court and the Supreme Court found the police negligent for mistreating the victims during the investigation and ordered the country to compensate them.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]