Over 450 posts in two months in 2024

Posts included acid attack threats, hints of harm to family

Actor Shin Se-kyung [The Present Company]
Actor Shin Se-kyung [The Present Company]

An online troll in their 30s who posted more than 450 threatening and abusive messages targeting actor Shin Se-kyung and Shin's family has again failed to avoid prison, receiving the same eight-month sentence on appeal as at trial — and this time was taken into custody in the courtroom immediately after sentencing.

The Present Company, Shin's agency, announced Monday that the troll had been sentenced to eight months in prison and detained on the spot at the Seoul Eastern District Court's appellate hearing. The appeals court dismissed the appeal on Oct. 22.

The troll, identified only by the surname Kim, flooded online community site DCInside's Shin Se-kyung-related and drama boards with more than 450 posts between June 3 and Aug. 14, 2024. The posts ranged from threats of an acid attack to physical and sexual insults, as well as abuse directed at Shin's family. The agency said the appellate ruling also cited posts implying that Kim intended to physically harm Shin's family members.

"The victim had to carry out activities under anxiety and fear that violent and grotesque harm would be inflicted by a defendant the victim did not even know," the court said in its ruling.

Kim cited personal circumstances, including depression, expressed remorse and asked for leniency, but the court was unmoved. The panel found no basis or legitimate motive for the conduct beyond a desire to attract attention online and vent anger, and noted that Kim had taken no steps to console or compensate Shin for the psychological shock and suffering caused.

From the first confirmed post to the appellate ruling, the case took two years and four months. The agency first announced Kim's arrest in December 2024, after spending months building a dedicated legal team with law firm Ascendant Yulbon and gathering evidence — aided by tip-offs from fans. Prosecutors sought a two-year sentence on June 26 of the following year. Kim admitted to all charges; the defense appealed for leniency, citing Kim's long period of social withdrawal and a part-time job of 14 hours a week as signs of reintegration into society.

At the first trial, Judge Lee Ho-dong of the Seoul Eastern District Court's Criminal Division 3 sentenced Kim to eight months on July 2, 2025, while noting that Kim did not appear to have genuinely intended to carry out the threatened harm. The appeals court upheld the same sentence but grounded its reasoning more explicitly in the fear Shin had to endure while the perpetrator's identity remained unknown.

Kim Ji-ae, an attorney at Ascendant Yulbon representing Shin, said the ruling made clear that courts treat cyberterrorism driven by a warped desire for attention or stress relief as grounds for a custodial sentence. "Serious criminal punishment and civil liability for damages will inevitably follow, commensurate with the severity of the conduct," Kim said.

The agency thanked fans who had spent years collecting and submitting evidence, and pledged to continue pursuing a zero-tolerance policy against illegal acts that violate artists' personal rights, including threats, defamation and insults.

Shin first came to public attention in the music video for Seo Taiji's "Take 5" in 1998 and rose to wider fame through the 2009 MBC sitcom "High Kick Through the Roof." Shin has moved between Sageuk dramas and contemporary productions, appearing in SBS's "Deep Rooted Tree" and "Six Flying Dragons," JTBC's "Run On" and tvN's "The Spy Who Loved Me." In July 2024, Shin joined The Present Company, founded by actor Ahn Hyo-seop and a longtime manager. This February, Shin returned to the big screen for the first time in 12 years in director Ryoo Seung-wan's "Humint."


shee@heraldcorp.com