South Korea’s most prolific online sex offender sentenced to life in prison

The leader of a Telegram sex gang who helped exchange thousands of sexually abusive materials has been sentenced to life in prison in South Korea.

Kim Nok-wan, 33, is the leader of the so-called Vigilantes: a massive pyramid-like organization that extorts victims into producing explicit content and sharing it in online chat rooms.

Vigilantes exploited at least 261 people between May 2020 and January 2025, the largest number of victims of online sexual exploitation in South Korea’s history.

King, who calls himself a “pastor,” was found guilty of systemic crimes, including sexually assaulting minors and distributing images of child sexual abuse.

He was sentenced on Monday for organizing and running a criminal organization, producing and distributing sexually exploitative and unlawfully filmed material, forcing the use of unlawfully filmed material and “quasi-rape” or sexual assault where the victim was unable to resist.

“(Kim Nok-wan) told the court that he was remorseful, but he had committed numerous crimes over the past four or five years,” the court said.

“Given the brutality of the crime and the lack of compensation for the victim, it is necessary to permanently isolate him from society.”

According to police, King sought out male and female targets through social networking platforms, lured them into using the instant messaging service Telegram, and then blackmailed them.

He contacted men who expressed interest in creating or distributing deepfake images, as well as women who expressed sexual curiosity, and then threatened to reveal their personal information or report them to authorities.

Some of these victims are then recruited into vigilante pyramid schemes and assigned titles such as “evangelist” and “deacon” so that they can bring in more victims.

King ordered adult and child victims to submit “daily hourly reports” and write letters of remorse, and punished those who failed to do so by forcing them to take nude photos or harm themselves.

The number of sexual exploitation materials produced by vigilantes exceeds 2,000.

Police added that as the gang’s leader, King also raped ten underage women, forced the women to have sex with other men and filmed himself committing brutal acts that resulted in injuries.

He was found to have participated in at least 453 Telegram channels and chat rooms to commit crimes, 60 of which he personally operated.

The case marks the first time Telegram has collaborated with South Korean police to provide crime-related data, spurring further investigation and leading to Kim’s arrest.

The South Korean National Police Agency established a formal investigative cooperation system with Telegram in October 2024, allowing the platform to formally provide relevant information to the authorities.