Producer Ahn Gil-ho of the hit Netflix drama “The Glory” admitted to physically assaulting students at a neighboring middle school as a high school student, and apologized to the victims in a statement via his attorney on Sunday.

According to the statement released by his law firm Jipyong, director Ahn physically assaulted middle schoolers when he was 17 years old while studying abroad in the Philippines in 1996.

“After hearing that his girlfriend was teased by a group of her friends at (the middle) school, Ahn got emotional and gave an unforgettable wound to other people,” the statement said.

“Director Ahn said he wants to ask for forgiveness from deep within his heart and would like to meet in person or communicate through the phone to convey his apology to those affected,” it added.

On Saturday, Ahn had denied all accusations of being a school violence perpetrator when news reports came out Friday following an anonymous post online. The post alleged that Ahn called out a group of younger students who were about 13 years old and physically assaulted them for about two hours for teasing his girlfriend.

After local news outlets reported the news, online commentors said it was “ironic” to see a school violence perpetrator make a series on school bullying.

“The Glory,” which was released on Netflix in December of last year, depicts the life of a school violence victim named Moon Dong-eun (played by Song Hye-kyo), a revenge-driven female character who survived horrific abuse and seeks to exact her revenge after 17 years.

The second part of “The Glory” was released Friday and topped the Netflix chart in Korea a day after its release.