Court Orders Additional Compensation for Woman Whose Nude Photos Were Shared in Police Group Chat

A woman who was caught in a prostitution crackdown and had her nude photos taken by police under the pretext of evidence collection has partially won an appeal in her state compensation lawsuit, claiming her fundamental rights were violated.

The Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Appeals Division 2-2 ruled today (June 16) that the state must pay an additional 300,000 won to the plaintiff, identified as A, in her damages suit against the Republic of Korea.

Previously, the first trial court had ordered the state to pay A 8 million won.

With this appellate ruling, the total compensation awarded to A has increased to 8.3 million won.

A had initially filed a lawsuit seeking approximately 50 million won in damages, arguing that her human rights and fundamental rights had been infringed upon.

In March 2023, police officers photographed A while she was in a state of nudity at a prostitution crackdown site using a mobile phone.

It was discovered that although A requested that the photos be deleted, the police refused and shared the images in a group chat room consisting of 15 members of the crackdown team.

The prosecution, which received the case from the police, also submitted A's nude photos and written statements as evidence during her trial for violating the Act on the Punishment of Arrangement of Commercial Sex Acts.

However, the court ruled that A's nude photos were illegally obtained evidence and decided to exclude them from the proceedings.

The first trial court for the case stated, "The police officers opened a closed door and photographed the defendant's entire body while she was in a state of nudity," adding, "It cannot be seen that the police officers sought consent for the photography or that the defendant agreed to it."

The court further explained, "Given the circumstances under which the photos were taken and the content of the images, the infringement on the defendant's right to personality is significant," and noted, "It is difficult to view them as having been taken in a manner generally considered acceptable."

The court concluded, "It is appropriate to deem them inadmissible as illegally obtained evidence," and issued an ex officio decision to exclude the evidence.

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Hong Jinyoung | Graphics by Lee Sumin | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.