Squid Recreation actor O Yeong-su’s sexual misconduct conviction has been overturned.
O Yeong-su’s conviction has been overturned
The 81-year-old star was convicted of two counts of sexual harassment in March 2024 however the Suwon District Court docket in South Korea has now reversed the ruling of a decrease court docket.
The veteran actor had been accused of hugging and kissing a girl on the cheek with out consent throughout a 2017 regional theatre tour, and whereas the appellate court docket acknowledged suspicion existed as a result of reality the unnamed feminine had sought sexual violence counselling six months after the alleged incident and since the actor had apologised at her request, in addition they expressed concern about the potential for the sufferer’s reminiscence being distorted over time.
The court docket careworn the necessity to shield the defendant’s pursuits when doubts stay.
Following the brand new verdict, the alleged sufferer insisted it might not “invalidate the reality or erase the ache I’ve suffered”.
She added in a press release launched by way of girls’s rights organisation Womenlink: “Regardless of as we speak’s ruling, I’ll proceed to talk the reality to the very finish.”
Womenlink blasted the choice, saying they have been “outraged by a ruling that when once more sexual violence within the theatre world.”
After being convicted, Yeong-su was sentenced to an eight-month jail time period, suspended for 2 years, and ordered to finish 40 hours of attendance at a sexual violence therapy programme.
The prosecution had sought a one-year jail time.
The actor beforehand claimed he held the girl’s hand to information her round a lake.
He added: “I apologised as a result of [the person] stated she wouldn’t make a fuss about it however it doesn’t imply that I admit the costs,” he stated.
However choose Jeong Yeon-ju discovered the sufferer’s information of the assault and her claims have been “constant … and seem like statements that can’t be made with out truly experiencing them.”
The choose added: “What’s written within the sufferer’s diary, and the counselling report of the sufferer after the incident just about match the main points of this case.”
Greatest identified for his function as Oh Il-name in Netflix’s ‘Squid Recreation’, Yeong-su gained South Korea’s first Golden Globe award in 2022 for his function within the present, which noticed poverty-hit contestants play childhood video games with deadly penalties in a bid to win 45.6 billion gained.
He’s seen as one of many best stage actors in South Korea, showing in additional than 200 stage productions since 1963 and successful a string of main awards.
