KUALA LUMPUR: Popular South Korean actor Kang Sung Wook has been sentenced to five years of prison time by the Seoul Central District Court for a rape incident which took place in August 2017.
According to Soompi, the sentence was reported yesterday by MBN’s News 8. Apparently, the 34-year-old actor had brought two women who were working as bar waitresses to his friend’s home before the unfortunate rape incident.
After one of the women left, he and his friend had forcibly prevented the remaining woman from leaving and then assaulted her.
When the victim had tried to file a criminal complaint against the actor for sexual assault, he was alleged to have claimed that she was a “gold-digger”.
He apparently also told her, “Who would believe a woman like you?”
During the trial, the Seoul Central District Court had said: “The victim’s testimony is consistent and she has never tried to get money out of the defendant.”
Kang‘s legal representatives have filed for an appeal to the five-year prison sentence.
The actor studied acting at the Seoul Institute of Arts before making his debut in the musical, Phantom Of The Opera, back in 2015.
He has since appeared in other musical productions such as The Sorrows Of Young Werther, Newsies and The Goddess Is Watching.
Kang is also known for starring in Channel A romance variety show, Heart Signal, where he apparently gained a reputation for being proactive in approaching women.
It was revealed that the act of sexual assault for which he was charged with took place around the same time he was filming the show.
The actor has also appeared in last year’s popular KBS drama, Marry Me Now.
Soompi further reported that a source from Channel A had said that: “We have halted all rerun services for Season 1 of Heart Signal, which features Kang Sung Wook.”
Although the episodes were taken down, short highlight clips were still being screened. Talking about this matter, the source added: “We are currently taking care of it. We will delete all videos that can be seen as problematic.”