SEOUL (Bernama-Yonhap): A South Korea court on Monday sentenced the leader of a Telegram-based sex crime ring to life imprisonment for sexually exploiting 261 people, including minors, over nearly five years, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Kim Nok-wan, 33, was charged with organising and working for the crime ring known as The Vigilantes, producing and distributing sexual exploitation videos, forcing the use of illegally produced videos and quasi-rape.
In addition to the prison term, the Seoul Central District Court ordered the publication of Kim's personal information on digital networks for 10 years, 10 years of employment restriction and 30 years of wearing an electronic device.
Kim ran the crime ring from May 2020 until January 2025 and sexually assaulted children and teenagers while calling himself a ‘pastor’.
Members of The Vigilantes also blackmailed men and women into submitting nude photos of themselves and used them to produce and distribute sexual exploitation videos.
The number of victims is more than three times that of the notorious ‘Baksabang’ case of 2019-2020, in which Cho Joo-bin blackmailed 73 individuals into making child and adolescent sexual exploitation material that he sold online through encrypted Telegram chat rooms. -- BERNAMA-YONHAP
