Former Korean singer Taeil sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for gang rape.
According to the Korea Times, Moon Taeil, a former singer of the South Korean musical band NCT, better known as Taeil, was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison by a Seoul District Court for gang rape of a Chinese tourist.
The verdict was handed down on Thursday, bringing great shame to the former singer of SM Entertainment’s world-famous boy band NCT.
The 31-year-old singer was sentenced in court along with two other co-defendants, who were identified only by their surnames Lee and Hong.
According to the court order, all three offenders were given identical sentences, were taken into custody immediately after the verdict was announced, and were also ordered to complete a 40-hour sex offender rehabilitation program.
According to details revealed during the trial, the incident took place in June 2024.
According to the details, the three criminals met the victim, a Chinese woman, at a bar in the Itaewon area of Seoul, where they drank alcohol with the woman, after which she became very drunk.
Later, the three men took the woman to Lee’s house by taxi, where they raped the woman while she was unconscious and unable to resist.
According to South Korean law, the crime falls under the category of ‘serious rape’ because multiple people were involved in it, and it is also considered ‘semi-rape’ because the victim did not consent.
The three suspects pleaded guilty to their crime in court last month.
According to the BBC, during the court hearing, the judge described the crime as extremely serious, but the sentence was relatively lenient compared to the seven-year sentence sought by the prosecution, on the basis that the three men were involved in the crime for the first time.
Former Korean singer Taeil began his career with ‘NCTU’ in 2016, later becoming part of the ‘NCT’ sub-unit ‘NCT 127’, which is one of the leading bands in South Korea and whose several songs have been included in the Billboard charts.
It should be remembered that Taeil was suddenly expelled from the group in August 2023, which raised doubts, because the details of the allegations against him were not made public at the time.
However, it was revealed that the band’s management company SM Entertainment had terminated his contract due to allegations of sexual misconduct against the singer.
