Autopsy Results of 5-Year-Old Child Abused to Death at Taekwondo Dojang: "Brain Damage Due to Asphyxiation"

National Forensic Service delivers initial oral opinion to police
Child dies on the 23rd, 11 days after life-sustaining treatment

According to the initial autopsy results, the 5-year-old child who was left unconscious after being placed on a mat and abandoned at a Taekwondo gym in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, likely died due to suffocation.

The National Forensic Service reported on the 25th that after conducting an autopsy on the deceased 5-year-old boy, identified as A, they delivered a preliminary verbal opinion of "brain damage caused by suffocation" to the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency, according to Yonhap News Agency. The police conducted the autopsy on A, who had been receiving life-sustaining treatment in an unconscious state at Asan Medical Center in Seoul and passed away on the morning of the 23rd.

On the morning of the 19th, the Taekwondo instructor who was arrested on charges of causing a 5-year-old child to fall into cardiac arrest and unconsciousness was transferred to the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office from the Uijeongbu Police Station in Gyeonggi Province.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Earlier, around 7:20 p.m. on the 12th, an incident occurred at a Taekwondo gym in Deokgye-dong, Yangju, where the instructor, Mr. B (in his 30s), rolled up a mat and placed A upside down inside it, leaving him there for more than 20 minutes. At that time, A was found unconscious and was transported to the hospital but did not regain consciousness. As the possibility of A recovering while being treated in the intensive care unit became slim, A’s family reportedly agreed with the hospital to discontinue life-sustaining treatment 11 days after the incident.

The police urgently arrested instructor B at the Taekwondo gym. It was revealed that when A stopped breathing, B took the child to a clinic located in the same building as the gym, and while A was receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, B deleted the Taekwondo gym’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage in an attempt to destroy evidence, which sparked controversy. During the police investigation, B reportedly stated that he put A in the mat "as a joke." The police arrested B on charges of child abuse causing serious injury under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and transferred him on the 19th. The prosecution is currently investigating and has changed the charges against B to child abuse resulting in death due to A’s passing.