South Korean religious leader arrested for alleged sexual assault of Australian woman
A 77-year-old religious fringe leader accused of sexually assaulting multiple women including an Australian has been arrested.
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EXCLUSIVE
A 77-year-old religious fringe leader accused of sexually assaulting multiple women including an Australian has been arrested over rape and molestation accusations overnight.
Late on Tuesday, local media reported that Jeong Myeong-seok, the South Korean-based leader of a controversial Christian sect called Providence, had been issued with an arrest warrant.
The arrest was over rape and molestation allegations. He will reportedly remain on remand in jail until it is decided if a trial will commence.
According to Article 299 of South Korea’s Criminal Act, quasi-rape is applicable to cases where a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person by taking advantage of his or her state of unconsciousness or inability to resist.” It’s similar for quasi-molestation.
Providence is a South Korean sect also called Jesus Morning Star, Christian Gospel Mission, the Bright Moon Church, the Global Association of Culture and Peace and Setsuri, that preaches the Second Coming of Jesus has already happened.
The group was founded by Jeong in 1978, who proclaimed he was the messiah, and the movement has spread to more than 50 nations including in Australia.
News.com.au has previously spoken to Olivia*, a former Providence member from Melbourne, who alleged Jeong indecently and sexually assaulted her during a trip to Providence’s head quarters in Wolmyeongdong, in South Korea’s Chungnam Province, in 2018.
At the time, she was 27 while he was 73.
Jeong is already a convicted rapist, having served a 10-year sentence for raping several female followers. Although he was released from prison in 2018, Olivia and four other victims allege he began reoffending just months later.
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On March 16 – which coincided with Jeong’s birthday – Olivia and another alleged victim spoke at a press conference called by their lawyers demanding criminal charges be laid.
Providence is “not some righteous religion, they’re an organisation that supports an actual criminal, a rapist and that is not OK, that can’t go on”, Olivia stated during the broadcast.
Another woman, Maple Ying Tung Huen from Hong Kong, claimed Jeong had raped her multiple times when she was a student visiting South Korea in 2018.
“I think the task that Heaven gave me before I die is to reveal the truth so that there are no more victims. Jung Myeong-seok is absolutely not the messiah,” she said, according to a translation.
The lawyer representing both women filed a complaint about Jeong with the National Police Agency on charges of ordinary quasi-rape and ordinary quasi-forced molestation.
Last Thursday, the Chungnam Police Agency applied for an arrest warrant for Jeong on charges of sexually assaulting and molesting two people.
On Tuesday night, the Daejeon District Court granted the request.
It’s understood that South Korean police tried on three separate occasions to speak to Jeong over the allegations, but this was delayed each time because Jeong said he was unwell.
It’s understood three more women have joined the case in the last month.
In the past Jeong acknowledged that both Olivia and Maple were in the Wolmyeongdong compound at the time but denied he had molested or raped them.
Providence did not immediately respond to news.com.au’s request for comment.
When the allegations first came out in March, Providence strongly rejected the sexual assault claims.
In a statement shared on their website, Providence said although they wanted “to express our regret for this situation”, they denied all wrongdoing and called the allegations untrue.
According to a translation from South Korean news outlet JTBC, a Providence spokesperson said after the arrest: “We will sternly deal with the media pressure that interferes with the exercise of the right to defend against the principle of presumption of innocence.”
When Olivia was part of Providence for six years, she was taught that worshippers are brides of god and by extension, the brides of the sect’s leader and messiah, Jeong.
“It’s hard for me to even look back on it,” Olivia told news.com.au. “We were brainwashed to believe this (the alleged assaults) is our one-on-one relationship with our husband.”
During a church-funded trip in July 2018 when followers from all over the world came to the Providence compound, including its Australian division, Olivia claims Jeong indecently touched her twice and sexually touched her three times.
The first alleged sexual incident occurred within a few weeks of her arrival in the Asian country in July 2018.
Jeong called Olivia into a private space and presented her with a new set of clothes. She got undressed as she instructed to try on the new clothes. It was here he allegedly touched her genitalia.
“I immediately went into shock,” she recalled. “The whole time my brain is thinking ‘what is going on, am I in a cult?’”
When the young woman raised concerns with other members of the church, they told her she should feel honoured that Jeong had treated her in that way.
They “told me that this is my blessing, he (Jeong) is my spiritual husband, then he’s my physical husband, so why can’t he do that (sexual acts)? That’s what a normal wife and husband do, I should feel blessed and thankful,” Olivia recalled.
Some time later, the same thing happened again, she alleges.
The second alleged sexual assault took place in “the cave”, a man-made tunnel in Wolmyeongdong.
She alleges he again touched her inappropriately, putting his hand down her underwear.
In the cave, Jeong also allegedly told her “I cannot have sex with you” and also asked her to touch his upper legs as they were leaving, calling them “honey legs”.
The final alleged sexual assault took place when he gave her a pair of pyjamas. As she was trying them on, he allegedly knelt down and kissed her private parts.
Jeong also allegedly indecently assaulted Olivia twice before she left South Korea.
In October 2018, the elderly man gave Olivia a lift on a golf buggy on the way to a sermon and she claims he tried to unbutton her jeans.
“(Luckily) my jeans were just way too tight,” she alleged.
“I just think that was so disgusting, he was literally going to preach the holy word of god (afterwards).”
On another occasion, Olivia claims he touched her inner thighs over her clothes.
News.com.au has previously spoken to three former Australian members of Providence, one of whom was in the sect for more than a decade before becoming disillusioned with it after watching Jeong play a game of tennis.
When Lucy* watched Jeong play a game of tennis against one of his worshippers, she had an epiphany.
Although Jeong was in his mid-70s at the time, spectators celebrated every time he hit the ball, as if he was Ash Barty.
“They’d be cheering him. Every. Single. Shot. I’m standing there thinking ‘This is ridiculous’,” Lucy said.
In that moment it hit her. “I could tell he was a fake, it was all a sham,” she said.
Another ex-worshipper met Jeong while he was in jail and was made to lie to and hide from her worried parents before boarding a flight to South Korea to see the messiah in the flesh.
A third Australian woman claimed she was made to give away a minimum of 10 per cent of her pay packet to the church as a tithe during her stint in the church. The church denied this was a requirement.
Earlier this year, news.com.au also revealed that the sect forked out $1.54 million to buy a commercial property in the Sydney CBD, located 4/173-179 Broadway, in Ultimo, which has been converted into a temple.
A former Canberra member of the religious sect called Liz appeared on SBS in 2014 claiming she had been encouraged to write intimate letters to Jeong while he was imprisoned.
She said he regularly replied with explicit content, such as “your white skin arouses me” and “your vagina would look pretty”.
A Providence spokesperson denied this at the time.
It’s understood Australian members plan to visit South Korean in the near future now that borders have opened.
Providence has reportedly been operating in Australia since 1997 with “temples” currently in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Do you know more or have a similar story? Continue the conversation | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au | @AlexTurnerCohen
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