The leader of a religious sect in South Korea was sentenced to 33 years in prison for sexually abusing female followers.
Jung Myung Seok, 81, the founder of the Providence movement, better known as Jesus Morning Star, was previously convicted of assault and related crimes against female followers he had indoctrinated by claiming messianic status.
He was given the latest prison term by the Daejeon district court for additional charges of quasi-rape and related sexual offences involving 16 female followers between 2018 and 2022. The sentence was heavier than the 27-year term sought by prosecutors.
The court cited the repeated nature of the crimes, the large number of victims, the use of religious authority and influence, and the fact that the offences occurred during a recidivism period after his earlier release.
He was indicted for using his position as a religious leader to brainwash and convince followers he was the “Messiah”, placing them in a psychological state of inability to resist before repeatedly assaulting or molesting them.
The offences took place at the sect’s Wolmyeongdong training centre in Geumsan, South Chungcheong province, and other locations.
"As the sect leader, he used an absolute status akin to a returning lord to repeatedly molest several female followers," the court said.
"The ways and means of the crime are very malicious, and as criminal acts took place repeatedly over a long period of time using the structure of religious control and influence, a grave punishment is inevitable.”
The court also ordered Jung’s personal information to be made public for 10 years, banned him from working at institutions serving children, teenagers and people with disabilities for the same period, and required him to wear an electronic monitoring device for 15 years.
The group's second-in-command, Kim Ji Seon, who was indicted for helping Jung commit the sexual offences, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The court banned Kim from working at institutions catering to children, teenagers and people with disabilities for 10 years, and ordered her to undergo 80 hours of treatment for sex offenders.
Jung fled to China in 2001 after he was charged with selecting followers from photographs and forcing them to have sex with him.
He was arrested in May 2007 in northeastern China and brought back to South Korea in February 2008 to face trial.
The court was told that Jung was presented with young and attractive women as "gifts" and he forced them into sex as part of a purification ritual.
The latest sentence is separate from the 17-year prison term handed to Jung in 2025 for sexually assaulting a Hong Kong national and sexually harassing an Australian follower and a South Korean follower.
Before the 2025 sentence, he was convicted of sexually assaulting or molesting four female followers overseas between 2001 and 2006. He was released in 2018 after serving a 10-year prison term.
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