Former NCT member Taeil (31) has been sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison for aggravated rape. The ruling, handed down by the 26th criminal division of the Seoul Central District Court on July 10 at approximately 2 PM KST, also saw two other defendants receive the same sentence.
The court’s decision goes further than just imprisonment, ordering all three defendants to complete 40 hours of educational programming related to sexual violence and to register as sexual offenders in their respective neighborhoods. Furthermore, they will be banned from working professionally in any career field related to children and youths for the next five years.
This initial ruling follows a trial in which Taeil and his two accomplices admitted to raping a Chinese national victim while she was intoxicated in June of last year. The severity of the crime was underscored by the Seoul Central District Court’s immediate issuance of arrest warrants for the defendants, citing a “concern of flight as the defendants will receive an imprisonment sentence.”
Details of the horrifying incident, revealed through the criminal complaint filed with the prosecution, paint a disturbing picture:
The Incident Unfolds
According to the complaint, around 2:33 AM on June 13, Taeil and his two friends met the victim, a Chinese woman, at a club in Itaewon. After drinking together, they forcibly dragged her into a taxi and transported her to a villa in Bangbae-dong, one of the defendant’s residences. It was there, between 4:00 AM and 4:30 AM on the same day, that the three defendants took turns gang-raping the victim while she was unconscious due to intoxication.
Investigation and Evidence
The police’s diligent work led to the defendants’ apprehension. Over the two months following the incident, investigators meticulously tracked down the suspects, analyzing CCTV footage and conducting search and seizure operations. Crucially, messages in a group chat among the defendants revealed a chilling detail: they were aware the victim was a foreigner and deliberately discussed having the taxi designated at a location different from the crime scene, an apparent attempt to evade detection.
Court’s Stance and Premeditation
The Seoul Central District Court emphasized the extremely serious and heinous nature of the crime, noting that the defendants met an unknown Chinese female tourist and subjected her to a brutal gang rape. Despite the defendants’ claims that the crime was unplanned, the court found this highly questionable. The prosecution highlighted the absurdity of randomly taking a Chinese tourist met in Itaewon at 2 AM to a villa in Bangbae-dong solely for more alcohol, strongly suggesting premeditation.
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