Court finds Squid Game actor Oh Young-Soo guilty of sexual misconduct

A South Korean Court has found actor Oh Young-soo, known for his role in the hit Netflix series ‘Squid Game,’ guilty of sexual misconduct.

The 79-year-old actor received an eight-month suspended sentence and was ordered to attend mandatory sexual violence treatment classes.

Young-soo, who won a Golden Globe Award in 2022 for his role as Player No. 001 in ‘Squid Game’, had publicly denied the charges and his decision to appeal the judgement.

A district court judge, Jeong Yeon-ju, in Seongnam, a city southeast of Seoul, was said to have found Young-soo guilty of inappropriately hugging an actress, holding her hand and kissing her cheek in 2017, after which prosecutors charged him in 2022 after the actress filed a complaint accusing him of inappropriately touching her.

The report further disclosed that Judge Jeong Yeon-ju said on multiple occasions in August and September 2017, Young-soo had hugged the woman, held her hand, kissed her cheek and lay in her rented room, where he made potentially inappropriate sexual comments.

The judge added that she received sexual violence counselling in March 2018 and tried to forget her distressful memories for some time, until the success of ‘Squid Game’ in 2021 prompted the woman to demand an apology from Young-soo about his actions, for which he apologised.

“Mr Oh denied kissing the woman, claimed that he had held her hand to help her carry things, and said that his apology to her was not an admission of guilt”, the judge said.

Young-soo’s lawyers argued that the woman’s narrative was inconsistent. But the judge found her accusations credible.

The sexual misconduct charge hurt his career well before the court rendered a verdict as Young-soo was not included in the cast for Season 2 of ‘Squid Game,’ scheduled for release this year.