Police officer sentenced to prison for leaking details about Hwang Ui-jo's illegal filming of sexual encounters
Published: 18 Dec. 2025, 17:19
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- YOON SO-YEON
- [email protected]
![Footballer Hwang Ui-jo appears at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, Sept. 4. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/12/18/e4db07cb-fe51-4fd9-918a-6990907a8bc5.jpg)
Footballer Hwang Ui-jo appears at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, Sept. 4. [YONHAP]
A police officer has been sentenced to a year in prison for leaking details of footballer Hwang Ui-jo's legal troubles as the former Nottingham Forest striker faced charges of illegally filming his sexual encounters.
The Seoul Central District Court overturned the initial ruling that acquitted the officer, surnamed Cho, and handed down a one-year sentence on Thursday for leaking confidential information about a legal case.
Hwang was indicted on charges of filming sexual encounters without consent multiple times between June and September 2022.
Last year, Cho was charged with leaking Hwang's case to an attorney the police officer knew, who then leaked it to a broker who blackmailed Hwang for money. Cho was found to have leaked the information in January last year while working on Hwang's case as an investigator at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, and was indicted and detained in July of the same year.
The initial court found Cho not guilty, saying the evidence proving their actions was not strong enough and that their "intentions and goals of leaking the information" weren't clear either.
However, the upper court cited a Telegram chat between the broker and Hwang, saying that the information the broker obtained appeared to have been passed along by someone with knowledge, and Cho seemed to have a motive for leaking it.
"Collusion between a working police officer and an attorney to leak information severely damages trust in public officials," the court said in the ruling.
BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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