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District court upholds ruling of man who doxxed suspected Miryang gang rape perpetrators

Published: 27 Mar. 2026, 14:12

The Incheon District Court is pictured in this undated file photo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

A man who doxxed not only perpetrators in the Miryang gang rape case but also their relatives and unrelated individuals was handed the same fine on appeal by a district court as in the lower court.

The Incheon District Court upheld a 10 million won ($6,600) fine on Friday in an appellate ruling for a man indicted on charges including defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

The man was put on trial on charges of defaming 11 people by identifying them as perpetrators in the Miryang gang rape case and posting their names and photos on his YouTube channel between June and July 2024.

Of the 11, four were reportedly found not to be the actual perpetrators.

The Miryang gang rape case refers to a crime that sparked public outrage after 44 high school boys in Miryang, South Gyeongsang, sexually assaulted one middle school girl from Ulsan over the course of about a year beginning in December 2004.

The case drew renewed attention after personal information purportedly identifying perpetrators spread online from June 2024, fueling public scrutiny over the so-called vigilante punishment.

The appeals court ruled that the sentence handed down by the lower court had already taken into account all circumstances, favorable and unfavorable, of the defendant. The court also found that even after considering the grounds for appeal raised by both the defendant and prosecutors, the original sentence could not be seen as excessively heavy or light.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]