The sister-in-law of Nottingham Forest striker Hwang Ui-jo has been sentenced to three years in prison for posting private explicit videos of the South Korean international and trying to blackmail him.
The defendant, who has not been named, was accused of sharing the videos on social media while pretending to be an ex-girlfriend accusing him of infidelity.
She posted the videos ‘knowing it would be disseminated indiscriminately’, the Seoul Central District Court said in a verdict, Yonhap news agency reported.
‘The content has been widely distributed in and out of South Korea… the nature of her crime is very serious,’ the court said.
The defendant had strongly denied the charges brought against her up to the trial and said there was a possibility her phone had been hacked.
But she later submitted a letter to judges in which she admitted to the crime and offered her apologies to the court and Hwang.
Hwang has denied the allegations and prosecutors have yet to clear or formally charge him.
In her blackmail plot, the defendant claimed Hwang had slept with several women, including celebrities, and led them to believe he was dating them, only to dump them later.
She also sent taunting messages to Hwang, saying ‘it will be fun’ if the videos are leaked, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The three-year sentence for Hwang’s sister-in-law was a year less than prosecutors had demanded.
The defendant’s acknowledgement of the crime and Hwang’s plea for leniency were taken into consideration, the court said.
‘I have caused great harm to the victims and I sincerely regret what I have done,’ the defendant said in her final testimony.
The 31-year-old Hwang, who is on loan from Forest at Turkish club Alanyaspor, scored in a World Cup qualifier against Singapore in November.
But the Korea Football Association have since suspended him from the national squad pending the outcome of the investigation into the alleged illegal filming.
