The Daejeon District Court imposed a 33-year prison term on Jung Myung-seok, leader of Jesus Morning Star (JMS), on Oct. 19 in a first-instance sexual assault case involving 16 female followers.
The sentence exceeded the 27 years prosecutors had requested. The court concluded that Jung’s status and influence in the group placed the women under psychological pressure that prevented them from resisting. Jung denied physical contact and rejected the claim that the followers could not resist him.
The ruling also requires Jung to undergo 15 years of electronic monitoring and bars him for 10 years from working at facilities serving children, adolescents and people with disabilities. Another JMS official received a seven-year prison sentence in the case.
Jung is serving a separate 17-year sentence that South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld in January 2025. He had previously served 10 years for sexual offenses against female followers overseas and was released in February 2018.
If the new sentence is upheld, Jung would serve it after his current term, a Daejeon court official told Reuters.
