MOMOLAND's Nancy is the latest victim of spy-cam porn
After spycam photos of MOMOLAND's Nancy McDonie undressing circulated online, her management said they are planning to take legal action.
According to reports, photographs of South Korean girl group MOMOLAND member Nancy McDonie undressing as she was changing outfits at the 2019 Asia Artist Awards are going around the internet. Fans of the K-pop superstar believe that the person behind this is a staff member of MLD Entertainment, MOMOLAND'S management. After all, they were the only ones who had access to the room.
It was first shared through a Discord server, then it was shared in different fan forums and group chats, and eventually reached Twitter. International fans of McDonie were alerted, which prompted them to inform MLD Entertainment. According to Korea Portal, fans are "encouraging other fans to email the agency to bring the incident to the attention, find the culprit, and take legal actions to protect Nancy and other artists."
MLD Entertainment released a statement, and said that McDonie is a "victim of a hidden camera picture that was subsequently photoshopped" and that because of it, the singer is now "suffering from a great amount of mental distress."
The management also assured fans that they will take legal action against the culprit.
"We will take strong legal action against the illegal photographer and the primary spreads in cooperation with the police and overseas law enforcement agencies. Through our legal representatives, civil and criminal penalties due to violation of the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes and violation of the Information and Communications Act will be carried out."
Meanwhile, the Asia Artist Awards committee also gave a statement regarding the incident. The committee apologized to McDonie and her fans, and promised to "actively cooperate with the Vietnamese and Korean law enforcement authorities" in the investigation.
"In addition, we will also work with MLD Entertainment to continue to monitor the situation and work together on both civil and criminal legal action related to any malicious postings to try and prevent further damage," they added.
This isn't the first time this has happened to a K-pop star. In the past, Apink's Bomi, and the late Goo Hara of KARA were also secretly filmed.
In 2018, a hidden camera disguised as a portable battery was found in Shin Se Kyung and Yoon Bomi’s place while filming for a show. Fortunately, the photos weren't leaked and the suspect, a staff member, was caught and sentenced to three years probation, with 18 months in prison if he violated probation.
That same year, K-pop royalty Goo Hara was blackmailed by her ex-boyfriend and threatened to damage her career by exposing their sex video, which she was unaware of. Though the court agreed it was filmed without her consent, her ex-boyfriend wasn't charged guilty of illicit filming because they were in a relationship. Over a year later, she died of alleged suicide.
In 2019, K-pop caused a major stir worldwide for yet another sex scandal. Singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young was arrested for secretly recording and sharing videos of his sexual encounters with about 10 women. He shared these videos to fellow K-pop superstars, BIGBANG's Seungri and FT Island's Choi Jong-Hoon—all of whom have retired.
Apparently, spy cam crimes or molka, are happening in South Korea. Molka when men secretly film women in private and public areas such as schools, toilets, dressing rooms, and even hotels. According to The U.S. Sun, crime rates of this kind "have jumped 600 per cent in South Korea since 2010 and, in 2018, nearly 7,000 cases were reported." Unfortunately, the severity of the punishment in South Korean law is lenient.
Photo from Nancy's Instagram (@nancyjewel_mcdonie_)