High School Girl Abused and Died at Church... Choir Director and Congregants Acquitted of Murder

Court Recognizes Child Abuse Homicide as Abuse Resulting in Death
Victim's Mother Also Guilty of Neglect and Abandonment

The church choir director and two church members who abused a high school girl living at the church, causing her death, were convicted not of abuse murder but of abuse resulting in death.

On the 9th, the 13th Criminal Division of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Jang Woo-young) announced at the sentencing hearing that the charge against A (52, female), the church choir director indicted for child abuse murder under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, was changed to child abuse resulting in death, and she was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison, according to Yonhap News. Two other church members, including B (54, female), who were indicted together, were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 years to 4 years and 6 months for child abuse resulting in death, not abuse murder.

A man in his 50s, a church member accused of abusing and killing a high school girl, is seen attending a detention hearing at the Incheon District Court on May 18. Photo by Yonhap News

The victim’s mother (52), who was charged with abandonment and neglect of a child under the Child Welfare Act for sending her daughter, who needed psychiatric treatment for bipolar affective disorder (manic depression), to the church instead of a hospital and neglecting her, was sentenced to 1 year in prison with a 2-year probation.

Earlier, at the prosecution’s closing arguments on the 25th of last month, the prosecution applied charges of child abuse murder to these individuals, seeking life imprisonment for A and 30 years in prison each for the two church members. The victim’s mother was also sentenced to 5 years in prison.

The court stated, "The prosecution claimed that the defendants tightly bound the victim and searched for more ways to abuse her, and abused the victim, who could not control her bladder or bowels and could not eat at all, leading to her death," but added, "There is insufficient evidence to recognize that the victim, who was able to communicate at the time, was in a life-threatening condition." However, the court said, "It is difficult to acknowledge that the defendants had the intent to kill the victim, but the causal relationship between the defendants’ abusive acts and the victim’s death can be recognized," and ruled that the charge of child abuse resulting in death is guilty.

The court also said, "The defendants repeatedly confined the victim for more than three months without any sense of guilt and subjected her to physical abuse, causing her death. The crime is difficult to justify for any reason, yet they did not admit their wrongdoing and made incomprehensible excuses," adding, "The fact that the victim’s mother and other bereaved family members did not want the defendants to be punished, and that the defendants committed the crime while trying to help the victim, who was in a difficult situation, were also considered" as reasons for sentencing.

Regarding the victim’s mother, the court explained, "She is not free from blame for neglecting her duty to raise her daughter," but also considered "the grief and guilt she feels after losing her daughter, which places her in a very painful situation."

A and the other two were brought to trial on charges of abusing and causing the death of high school girl C (17), who lived at a church in Incheon from February to May 15. C had bipolar affective disorder and needed psychiatric treatment, but her mother, who was discussing treatment options with church members, reportedly sent her to the church after being told that the choir would take responsibility for C’s treatment.

Church members confined C at the church, monitored her to prevent escape, and repeatedly subjected her to harsh treatment such as binding her body despite her showing symptoms requiring hospital treatment. They forced C, who had not slept for five days, to copy the Bible and ordered her to climb stairs from the basement first floor to the seventh floor for an hour. Due to continuous abuse, C lost control of her bladder and bowels and was unable to eat any food, yet they continued harsh treatment such as binding her body. Eventually, on May 15 around 8 p.m., C lost consciousness and collapsed while eating at the church, was taken to the hospital, but died four hours later.