The co-founder of an illegal South Korean pornography website who fled to New Zealand has been sentenced to four years in prison by a Seoul court while her husband and the other founders remain at large.
Photo: 123rf
The woman, surnamed Song, was found guilty of aiding and abetting the distribution of obscene material on website Soranet, one of South Korea's largest pornography websites.
Producing and disseminating pornography is illegal in South Korea. The use of hidden and up-skirt cameras is a huge problem in the country.
Song was also fined 1.4 billion won ($NZ18.4 million) and ordered to attend 80 hours of sexual violence prevention education.
The 46-year-old is one of four people, including her husband, who ran the site from 1999 to 2016, using overseas servers, the Korea Herald reports.
The site had more than a million users and hosted thousands of illegal videos, many filmed with spy cameras and shared without the consent of women featured, before it was shut down following a public outcry.
Women organised huge street protests across South Korea last summer, calling on the government to take more serious action against illegal pornography.
Song fled to New Zealand after police began investigating the site in 2015 but was forced to return to South Korea when her passport was revoked.
She denied the charges, claiming in court that her husband and another couple were in charge of running the site.
The three other co-owners, who have foreign passports, remain at large.
Many of the website's spy-cam videos were taken secretly in toilets and store changing rooms, or posted by ex-partners out for revenge.
Some of the women who had appeared in the videos took their own lives.
- BBC
