On the afternoon of July 2, Thursday, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Choi Jeong Beom, 29 years old and the ex-boyfriend of the late Singer Goo Hara, to one year in prison. The appeals court ruled no probation.
He was sentenced on the ground of violating the Law of Sexual Violence Crimes. His original sentence included 3 years of probation with 18 months of prison time if violated. He was found guilty on four charges: intimidation, assault, coercion, and property damage.
Fans expressed outrage over the short sentence he received. Many believed he deserved a longer sentence, while some claimed he should have been given a life sentence for the damage he had caused Goo Hara.
In 2018, the ex-boyfriend broke into Goo Hara's house while he intoxicated. She was sleeping at the time, and he was able to get in because he knew the passcode to her front door. When he saw Goo Hara sleeping, he kicked her awake and threw her household appliances, causing them to break.
They began arguing with each other, which then caused things to turn violent. He had kicked Goo Hara first, leaving bruises all over her body. She scratched him on his face in self-defense. After the fight, the ex-boyfriend left and called the police, saying he was assaulted by Goo Hara.
When the police arrived on the scene, Choi Jeong Beom continued to insist the argument was one-sided. Goo Hara then revealed to them that he had broken in, threw her household appliances, and was the first one to get violent. The police investigated the boyfriend, and Goo Hara was hospitalized for her injuries,
That same year, Goo Hara revealed her ex-boyfriend was threatening her with two sex tapes, which she thought she had deleted from his phone. Because of the threats, she tried hard to accommodate her ex-boyfriend and settle the issues they had in the hopes he would not leak the videos, as she feared it would ruin her life. In their text message exchanges, Goo Hara can be seen trying to do all that he wants, while the ex-boyfriend consistently complains saying that she takes too long to reply and that if she takes any longer, he will report her to the police for assault.
Her ex-boyfriend claims, however, that he was not using it to blackmail her and that it was her idea to film them doing the act. He also said that if he had the intent to ruin her life with those videos, he would have already done so.
In a video interview, Choi Jeong Beom claims that he sent her the video as a way of closure. Goo Hara's roommate, however, says that it was done in a way to threaten her; to tell her to watch out because he has this video that could ruin her career. He had threatened to leak the videos to Dispatch, which caused Goo Hara to feel desperate to settle the issue, but he said that he wasn't actually going to go through with it.
Goo Hara passed away in 2019. Her brother, Goo Ha In, claimed that the violence and blackmail she received from Choi Jeong Beom is one of the biggest causes that led the late singer to take her life. He also expressed anger that the punishment for dating crimes in South Korea was too lenient.
