Leader of South Korea’s biggest Telegram sex abuse ring g...

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Leader of South Korea’s biggest Telegram sex abuse ring gets life sentence

Seoul court says Kim Nok Wan committed crimes of ‘extreme brutality’

Shweta SharmaMonday 24 November 2025 11:52 GMTComments

open image in galleryKim Nok Wan (Seoul Metropolitan Police)

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A South Korean court on Monday sentenced the leader of a Telegram sex crime ring to life imprisonment for exploiting at least 261 people.

Kim Nok Wan, 33, alias “Pastor”, created a Telegram channel called “The Vigilantes” in 2020 and coerced victims, nearly 150 of them minors, into producing explicit material through blackmail and then distributed the content in online chat rooms.

His group operated under a pyramid hierarchy, encouraging members to recruit new victims or share abusive material in order to climb the ranks.

Between May 2020 and January 2025, the network exploited 261 people, making it the largest known online sexual exploitation ring in South Korea, triple the scale of a previous ring run by Cho Ju Bin called “Doctor’s Room”.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the life sentence to Kim after convicting him of organising and operating a criminal organisation, producing and distributing illegally filmed sexual exploitation material, and committing “quasi-rape”, defined as sexual assault of an individual in a state of unconsciousness, or otherwise unable to resist.

Kim claimed that he was remorseful, the court noted, “but over the past four to five years he has committed countless crimes”.

“Considering the brutality of the crimes and the lack of restitution for victims,” it ruled, “it is necessary to permanently isolate him from society."

open image in galleryA TV screen shows a file image of Kim Nok Wan, centre, the leader of the Telegram sex crime ring, in Seoul on 24 November 2025 (AP)

The court ordered the details of Kim’s crimes to be made public on the information and communications network for 10 years, imposed a 10-year employment ban on him and mandated 30 years of electronic monitoring.

It said Kim raped 16 victims, including 14 minors, and produced over 1,700 child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials, according to Chosun News.

He also sent a video of a victim to their father through an accomplice and threatened to release it at their workplace. “The methods of the crimes were extremely cruel and vicious,” the court said. “As similar crimes are rapidly increasing in our society, the need for severe punishment is critical.”

“He committed countless crimes, and most victims have not recovered from the harm,” the court ruled.

In 2020, Cho, 25, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for blackmailing at least 74 people, including 16 minor girls, into providing sexually compromising images and videos, and hosting chatrooms where at least 10,000 people watched the explicit content.