Warrant for suspect sought in Youtuber sexual abuse case

A photographer was arrested for leaking Youtuber Yang Ye-won’s lewd photos online, according to the Seoul Western District Court on Tuesday.

Police requested an arrest warrant on June 28 for the photographer surnamed Choi, 45, because they were concerned about evidence being destroyed and that he would flee.

Choi was the first photographer to allegedly distribute the photos online after sexually abusing Yang, 24, and coercing her into modeling for pornographic photos three years ago in a “closed-door” photo shoot. 

The police confirmed that the photos posted on a file-sharing website had the same shooting angle and position as the photos Choi had taken and suspect Choi to have leaked the photos.

However, the suspect said that he did take the leaked photos but that he had lost the storage device, claiming he is not responsible for the photos online.

Choi was arrested for sexual violence, which includes leaking lewd photos without the consent of the model even if the model agreed to the photo shoot. The photographer is known to be the one who supervised the photo shoot, however, Choi denies the allegations saying it was consensual.

The police plan to request an arrest warrant for the director of the studio surnamed Jeong, 42. The sexual abuse controversy deepened as the studio director countersued Yang on May 30 for false allegations and defamation. He also revealed a restored Kakao conversation exchanged between Yang and the director in an attempt to prove that Yang had agreed to the photo shoot.

By Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@heraldcorp.com)