Jeong Myeong-seok's appeal trial commuted to 'the Goddess is also accused of sexual assault'...17 years in prison

The Daejeon High Court overturned the original court's sentence of 23 years in prison for JMS President Chung Myung-seok, who is accused of brainwashing and sexually assaulting Goddess Island using his religious status, and sentenced him to 17 years in prison, six years less.

The court judged that the sentencing criteria judged in the first trial were beyond the reasonable scope of discretion and that originality and integrity were proved for the recorded files used as evidence of sex crimes.

Jeong is accused of sexually assaulting two foreign goddesses and molesting a Korean goddess 23 times at the JMS Training Center in Geumsan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, for about three years from February 2018.

Earlier, the first trial court sentenced the victims to 23 years in prison, saying they had absolute power by calling themselves messiahs and committed the crime when they could not fully exercise their right to sexual self-determination.

Accordingly, the prosecution and Jeong appealed for improper sentencing.