Overview
- O Yeong-su, 81, was found not guilty by the Suwon District Court’s appellate bench, overturning a lower-court conviction for allegedly hugging and kissing a colleague without consent during a 2017 theatre tour.
- The lower court in March 2024 had imposed an eight-month prison term suspended for two years and ordered 40 hours of sexual-violence treatment after finding the accuser’s testimony credible.
- The appeals panel acknowledged reasons for suspicion, including the accuser’s sexual-violence counseling six months after the incident and an apology message from O, yet ruled that reasonable doubt remained.
- Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison term at both trials, while O consistently denied indecent conduct and told the court the case had shattered his life.
- The accuser condemned the acquittal in a statement released via Womenlink, and earlier industry fallout included O being edited out of the film Big Family and barred from KBS broadcasts.