Global Courant 2023-05-20 10:00:00
SEOUL – South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld a 30-year prison sentence for a couple who abused and starved to death the woman’s two-year-old child.
The 22-year-old woman and her husband, 29, were charged with neglecting the child and her 17-month-old brother from October 2021 to March 2022 when they failed to feed the children adequately.
The girl died in March 2022 from severe malnutrition and cerebral hemorrhage.
During the time, the man – the girl’s stepfather – discovered that the child was unconscious on the floor after eating a dog’s feces and food. He did not help the girl.
He also appeared to have physically assaulted the victim when she went through the garbage to look for food.
The autopsy on the child — who weighed about half the average weight of children of the same age — found a single piece of carrot in her digestive system.
Investigators found that the couple stopped feeding the girl altogether for about two weeks until her death.
The couple received a government grant of 350,000 won ($355) each month and alimony of 400,000 won from the child’s biological father.
While narrowly escaping death, the child’s brother was also severely malnourished and physically abused by the couple.
The two were charged with violating Section 4 of the Special Cases Act Relating to the Punishment of Child Abuse, which states that murder by child abuse is punishable by a minimum of seven years’ imprisonment and a maximum of the death penalty.
The mother claimed the child’s death was due to her husband’s beating, not starvation.
The husband said he was not the girl’s biological father and should not be punished as a legal guardian. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
