Actor Ko Se-won. [Yonhap]
Actor Ko Se-won. [Yonhap]

A court has sentenced a woman in her 40s, a former girlfriend of actor Ko Se-won, to prison for stalking him and damaging his reputation by spreading false information.

According to Yonhap and legal sources Monday, Judge Park Jun-seop of the Anyang Branch of Suwon District Court sentenced the woman, identified only as A, to two years in prison in July and ordered her to complete 40 hours of a stalking treatment program. She had been indicted on charges of violating the Stalking Punishment Act and defaming Ko through false statements under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

A, who had previously dated Ko, was indicted on charges of posting false claims online 10 times between November 2021 and September 2022 — after their breakup — alleging that she had been impregnated and abandoned by a man referred to as "K," described as "the prince of housewives," and had subsequently suffered a miscarriage.

A also faces charges of contacting Ko 54 times and his mother eight times between October 2021 and June 2022, and of visiting his home on one occasion.

The court also found her guilty of posting additional defamatory content on online community boards containing false claims of coercive sexual intercourse and a pregnancy followed by a miscarriage.

"Although the victim is an actor whose career is directly affected by public perception and trust, the defendant repeatedly posted false content on internet boards in a way that made it easy to identify the victim," the court said. "It appears that the victim has suffered serious disruption to his professional life, including his acting career, as a result of this case."

The court added that A had reached no settlement with the victims and had not been forgiven by them. "Taking all these circumstances into account, strict punishment is unavoidable even considering that the defendant has no prior criminal record for similar offenses," it said in explaining the sentence.

Ko made his debut in 1997 as a KBS 19th-class talent recruit and has appeared in the drama series "Ugly Miss Young-ae," taking lead roles in productions including "Suspicious Three Brothers," "You Don't Know Women," "Crazy Love," "Mom's Garden," "Love Is Coming" and "Dangerous Promise." His acting career was derailed by A's false claims.


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