A court in South Korea has found Squid Game actor O Yeong-Su guilty of sexual assault.
The 79-year-old O, who won a Golden Globe for his performance as Oh Il-nam/Player 001 in Netflix’s smash hit drama, was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to attend classes on sexual violence after being charged in 2022 with sexually assaulting a woman twice. O said he will appeal the verdict, which was issued by the Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court.
The BBC quoted the AFP, which said the assaults took place in 2017 while O was staying in a rural area for a theatre performance. According to the Yonhap news agency, O was accused of hugging a woman and kissing her on the cheek against her will. He had denied the claims.
Judge Jeong Yeon-ju said the victim's records of the assault and her claims were "consistent ... and appear to be statements that cannot be made without actually experiencing them", the AFP reported.
The court added: “What’s written in the victim’s diary, and the counseling report of the victim after the incident pretty much match the details of this case.”
According to Reuters, South Korean women's rights group Womenlink welcomed the ruling and urged O to apologize to the victim. "The defendant resembles other offenders of sexual violence in theatre in the past who tried to cover up their sexual violence as 'favour' and 'friendship'," the group said in a post on X/Twitter.
Image credit: CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
