A 39-year-old man has been arrested without physical detention on charges of circulating sex videos with women whom he met online, police said Monday.

The suspect, only identified by his surname Jin, is accused of having sex with dozens of women whom he met through a chat service and distributing online some 100 pieces of video footage of them engaged in sexual acts between 2003 and 2005, they said.

Police investigators, however, said they would have difficulty in bringing charges against Jin, as statute of limitations have already expired.

Jin was apprehended at a local airport on Tuesday when he attempted to enter the country in an aim to renew his passport, they said. He has been staying in Japan since 2005.

The victims were lured by the suspect, who said he wouldn’t “share the video footage with anyone,” officers said.

“(The women) agreed to filming the videos, and I destroyed all the files before going to Japan. I had no intention of circulating the videos,” Jin was quoted by the officers as saying.

Police, however, said that they suspect Jin had recorded the videos with the intent to distribute them as he manages a file-sharing service based in Japan. 

Although the court dismissed the investigators’ request to issue an arrest warrant for Jin, the police officers said they will look into the possibility of indicint him on charges of distributing the sex videos. (Yonhap News)