Nth Room first death: Man who purchased videos from Baksa aka Jo Joo Bin commits suicide

A man in 40s who brought sex videos from Cho Joo Bin wrote a suicide note and jumped into Han River, stating he didn't know the scandal would become so big

The news of the arrest of Baksa (Cho Joo Bin), the main suspect in the Telegram Nth Room sex videos scandal with police intensifying its search for paid users of the videos has claimed the first life. Reportedly, a man involved in this scandal has committed suicide.

This news was broken by MBN, that stated that a man in his 40s jumped into the Han River and died. It was claimed as suicide as a suicide note was found inside the bag he had left on the road before jumping into water. The suicide note states: "I deposited money for the Doctor's Nth Rooms, but I didn't know [the situation] would become so big."

Man commits suicide

Jo Joo Bin Nth Room scandal suspect
Cho Joo Bin aka Baksa SBS video screengrab

According to a statement by Seoul Gangnam Police Station, a man in his 40s died at 2:47 am on March 27, after jumping off the Yeongdong Bridge. Citing the suicide note, the police said that he was reportedly in despair after hearing that the cops have intensified search for the users of Nth Room sex videos from Cho Joo Bin aka Baksa.

Police are probing deep into the matter and accessing the circumstances based on the CCTV footage obtained from the spot. Apart from the suicide note, they are trying to contact people close to him and get their statements to find more details on the suicide as well as Nth Room scandal.

2,60,000 users of Nth Room

Earlier reports claimed that there were at least 2,60,000 users of Nth Room gruesome sex videos who paid to purchase or watch these videos put up by Cho Joo Bin who was known as Baksa. He was also called 'Doctor' and the place where videos were uploaded was called 'Doctor's Room' and the payment was done here for the users to watch the videos.

Previous reports also claimed that the user could login after paying a minimum of 250,000 KRW ($199.07) and maximum amount charged to watch videos was 1,550,000 million KRW ($1,234.20) – depending on the intensity of the video.

Number of victims listed so far is 74

So far the number of victims listed is 74 and among them 16 are said to be minors. But a victim, who was a middle school student when she was trapped by Cho Joo Bin and forced to record and send videos of sexually violent nature, said that there were many minors than adults trapped by Cho Joo Bin, who wooed them with offers of part-time sponsor jobs.

Before getting handed over to prosecution, Cho Joo Bin apologized to all the victims but kept mum on the crimes he had committed. He also said that he was thankful for what happened as he was not able to stop the demon inside him.

Meanwhile, police have intensified their search for users of the Nth Room videos. It is alleged that celebrities including CEOs of a company, a sports star and one from entertainment industry are also the users of videos. Identity of 10,000 users have been found out in the probe, but is yet to be made public.

This article was first published on March 27, 2020
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