“If You Cheat, I’ll Give You All My Assets” ... Man in His 30s Suspected Girlfriend of Cheating, Forced Her to Write a Pledge While Naked and Filmed Her; Taken Into Custody in Court

[Financial News] A man in his 30s was sentenced to prison for assaulting his girlfriend over suspicions that she was cheating, making her kneel naked to write a pledge, and then filming her.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Newsis and other outlets on the 29th, the Jeju District Court’s Criminal Division 3, sitting as a single-judge panel (Presiding Judge Kim Hee-jin), recently sentenced A, a man in his 30s who had been indicted without detention on charges including violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (filming using cameras or other devices), to one year and eight months in prison and took him into custody in court.
The court also ordered A to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program.
A was charged with repeatedly beating his girlfriend, B, after learning on January 28, 2023, that she had exchanged messages with another person of the opposite sex via her workplace messenger and suspecting that she was cheating.
A made B kneel while naked and write a pledge saying, “If you cheat again, I’ll give you all my assets,” then filmed her on his phone. He also took B’s phone and deleted all her contacts, photos and other data. He is additionally charged with taking screenshots of messages B exchanged with another person, posting them on an online forum, and threatening, “If you tell your parents that you have to quit your job because you cheated, I’ll delete it,” thereby making B contact her parents with that message.
During the trial, A’s side denied most of the charges, saying, “The victim wrote the pledge of her own accord, no video was filmed, and the contact with her parents was not made under threat.”
However, the court rejected A’s side’s claims, saying the victim’s account was consistent and so detailed that it would have been difficult to make up without having directly experienced it. It also found that the evidence submitted—including photos of bruises on B’s body taken shortly after the incident, details of related counseling, and the contents of a phone call with her younger sibling—corroborated her account.
The court condemned A, saying, “The assault was not minor, and he filmed her in a state that could cause extreme shame.” It added, “He took screenshots of private conversations and posted them, then made the victim, who was distressed by this, say something no one would want to tell their parents. He sought to isolate her from her workplace and family and make her an object of blame.”
The court went on to explain its sentencing decision, saying, “It is clear that the victim suffered severe mental anguish, and he has not been forgiven by her,” and, “The fact that they continued dating for a considerable time after the crime does not lessen the prospect of punishment.”
Meanwhile, both the prosecutor and A appealed the first-instance ruling.
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter