On the night of January 3, a Korean man lying face-down with his hands bound was found in a street of Strathfield. The forty seven years old, Sung Sub Kim told police he had been kidnapped for ransom.
However, it soon emerged the kidnapping had been clumsily staged by Kim and his son Julian.
That night, the father had hidden for more than four hours in a public bathroom, while his son pretended his father had gone missing. He sent text messages to his mother and members of their Korean church congregation that he needed $200,000 to pay a ransom for his release.
However, later that night, Julian picked up his father and dropped him to a street only a couple hundred meters away from their family home in Strathfield after tied his hands and placed a bag over his head.
However, police soon found out the deceit because the fake photos, text messages and audio recordings proved the Kims had barely bothered to cover their tracks.
Both father and son have pleaded guilty to the fake kidnapping charges and they will be sentenced in August.
The Current affair introduced Reverend Moses Hahn as a pastor who led the Korean congregation the Kims targeted but it was founded that Rev Hahn was not the person who related to the incident.
Rev. Hahn contacted SBS Korean program and said he has been working in Australian local Presbyterian churches for the last 25 years, not Korean congregations.
“I was invited for an interview by the Current Affair and I only knew about the incident a day before the interview. The production team asked me if I am the pastor of the church, how would I feel about it and I answered for that. But they wrongly introduced me as the Korean pastor who led the church congregation Kims attended” Rev. Han said.
Rev. Han received an apology from the Current Affair team but, their article about the incident was still introducing him as a relevant church pastor.
The SBS Korean program has more.
