A woman in her 30s who repeatedly left graffiti insulting singer BoA (real name Kwon Bo-ah) around the Gangnam Station area has been sent to trial.
According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 24th, Criminal Division 7 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (led by Senior Prosecutor Cho Yoon-chul) indicted a woman in her 30s, surnamed Cho (38), without detention on charges of insult and property damage on the 20th.
Cho is accused of publicly insulting BoA and impairing the utility of public facilities by leaving sexually disparaging graffiti about the singer using a permanent marker a total of eight times on bus stop signs and electronic billboards in the Gangnam-gu and Gangdong-gu areas of Seoul in June of last year.
The Seoul Gangnam Police Station received a complaint from BoA in June of last year, investigated the case, and forwarded it to the prosecution in July. Cho is reportedly known to have a history of being sentenced to fines multiple times on charges including property damage for repeatedly leaving insulting graffiti targeting other celebrities in addition to BoA.
The graffiti targeting BoA last year was discovered consecutively around the Gangnam Station area, sparking public anger among fans.
Fans shared locations where the graffiti was found through online communities, reported them to the police, the local district office, and SM Entertainment, and some fans even visited the sites personally to take part in voluntary cleanup activities, wiping away the graffiti with wet wipes and other materials.
One fan shared at the time, "I was so worried that the artist would see this graffiti and get hurt. I couldn't just leave it there, so I wiped it off myself and also reported it to the police."
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)