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| Moon Hyung-wook, another key suspect in the high-profile Telegram chat room sexual abuse and exploitation case, had his identity made public Wednesday by police. Courtesy of Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency |
Police made public the identity of a fourth key suspect in the Telegram sexual abuse and exploitation case Wednesday.
Moon Hyung-wook, a 24-year-old university student, is in police custody and is expected to be transferred to the Daegu Prosecutors' Office, Monday.
He was arrested May 9 on charges of coercing women to create sexually exploitative videos and distributing them in Telegram chat rooms under the ID "God God."
Police said Moon started his criminal activities around 2015 and Cho Ju-bin, who was indicted on charges of online sexual crimes using minors, in fact, copied what Moon was doing.
He allegedly approached women who shared naked pictures with him on social media and blackmailed them into making the sexually exploitative content. Some videos were recorded by his accomplices as they raped the victims. The police said Thursday that Moon had operated 10 such chat rooms.
He asked for gift certificates from "clients" who wished to enter the chat rooms, while Cho collected bitcoins.
According to local news outlets, Moon studies architecture at Hankyong National University in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province.
His classmates described Moon as a very quiet student, too quiet even to remember much about him.
"He was almost like an outsider, because he didn't participate in any extra-curricular activities and didn't have any close friends. He always sat on a chair next to the door in the lecture room," one of his classmates was quoted as saying.
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