Netflix
Squid Recreation star O Yeong-Su has been convicted of sexual misconduct over allegations he hugged and kissed a lady on the cheek in opposition to her needs.
O was one of many stand-out performers in Netflix‘s international megahit Squid Recreation, garnering a Golden Globe nomination for his function as Oh Il-nam.
In response to reviews in Korea, O was sentenced to as much as eight months in jail, suspended for 2 years, by the Seongnam Department of the Suwon District Court docket.
The 79-year-old was charged in 2022 over allegations that he hugged a lady and kissed her on the cheek in 2017, per Korean information company Yonhap.
He denied the fees and, after leaving courtroom on Friday, advised reporters that he would enchantment the ruling, which included attending a 40-hour sexual offender therapy program.
O has beforehand mentioned he held the girl’s hand to information her round a lake. “I apologized as a result of [the person] mentioned she wouldn’t make a fuss about it nevertheless it doesn’t imply that I admit the fees,” he mentioned.
In response to AFP, decide Jeong Yeon-ju mentioned the sufferer’s data of the assault and her claims had been “constant … and look like statements that can not be made with out truly experiencing them.”
The courtroom added: “What’s written within the sufferer’s diary, and the counseling report of the sufferer after the incident just about match the small print of this case.”
O has been appearing for greater than 50 years however his function in Squid Recreation drew him international fame and acclaim. Different performances embrace the function of King Lear within the eponymous play and an look in South Korean TV sequence Chocolate.
Womenlink, a girls’s rights group in South Korea, welcomed the ruling. “The defendant resembles different offenders of sexual violence in theatre previously who tried to cowl up their sexual violence as ‘favour’ and ‘friendship’,” the group mentioned in a submit on Twitter (now X).