Cruel Couple... Beat 2-Month-Old Son to Death and Abandon Daughter

7-Year Prison Sentence in 2019 for Son's Assault and Death
Couple Collaborated to Abandon Daughter in Baby Box in 2017

A man in his 30s, who was sentenced to 7 years in prison and is currently serving his sentence for assaulting and causing the death of his 2-month-old son five years ago, was later found to have abandoned his daughter, born before the son, in a baby box and has been punished for it.

The Busan District Court Criminal Division 17 (Chief Judge Mok Myeong-gyun) sentenced A, a man in his 30s, and his wife B to 8 months and 10 months in prison respectively, suspended for 2 years, on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act (child abandonment and neglect), Yonhap News reported on the 1st. The court also ordered them to attend 40 hours of child abuse recidivism prevention lectures.

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Baby box at a church in Seoul.

The couple A gave birth to a daughter in Busan on July 27, 2017, and after being discharged two days later, they went up to Seoul and secretly left their daughter in a church baby box and fled. At the time of pregnancy, they judged that even if the child was born, they would not be able to properly raise the child due to difficult financial circumstances, and after reading articles related to baby boxes, they decided to commit this crime. The couple, who registered their marriage in 2015, had no particular jobs and made a living by mining and selling internet game items using several computers in a one-room apartment.

Later, the couple had a son. However, A began to abuse the son by assaulting him. At that time, he was in a difficult financial situation, unable to repay a loan of about 35 million won, facing forced execution requests from debt collection agencies, and unable to properly pay his mobile phone and gas bills. The son contracted pneumonia, incurring hospital bills, and due to childcare, A could not properly mine online game items, reducing his income by nearly half. In this situation, A beat his 2-month-old son because the baby would not sleep at night, causing a brain hemorrhage that led to the child's death.

Eventually, in July 2019, A was sentenced to 7 years in prison by the Ulsan District Court for child abuse resulting in death and was incarcerated. During this time, it was additionally revealed that he had abandoned his first daughter, born in 2017 before the child abuse crime.

Regarding the sentencing reasons, the court explained, "Considering that the defendants confessed to the crime and showed remorse, that the wife committed the crime under the husband's encouragement, the need to consider consistency with the confirmed sentence for the husband's child abuse resulting in death, and that the abandoned child has since been adopted and is doing well."