Court: "Secret Recordings" Not Admissible as Evidence
The special education teacher who was found guilty in the first trial for emotionally abusing the son of webtoon artist Joo Homin was acquitted on appeal.
On May 13, the Criminal Appeals Division 6-2 of the Suwon District Court (Presiding Judges Kim Eunjeong, Kang Heekyung, and Kwak Hyungseop) overturned the original verdict and acquitted the defendant, referred to as A, in the appeal trial for charges including violations of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Welfare of Disabled Persons Act.
In the first trial in February last year, the court had suspended the sentence for A, who was fined 2 million won. At that time, the court recognized the admissibility of the secretly recorded audio file, which became controversial after it was revealed that Joo's spouse had secretly recorded the class. A suspended sentence is a ruling in which the imposition of a sentence for a minor crime is postponed for a certain period, and if two years pass from the date of suspension, the conviction is effectively nullified.
However, the appellate court ruled that the secretly recorded audio could not be admitted as evidence. The appellate court stated, "According to the case records, the victim's mother placed a recorder with the recording function turned on in the child's clothing, capturing the conversation between the defendant and the child in the classroom during class. Such audio files and transcripts constitute 'undisclosed conversations between others' in violation of the Protection of Communications Secrets Act, and therefore cannot be used as evidence."
A was accused of emotionally abusing Joo's son (then 9 years old) in a customized learning classroom at an elementary school in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on September 13, 2022, by making remarks such as, "You have very bad manners. Oh, I hate it. I hate it so much. I don't like you. I don't like you either. I really don't like you."
It is known that Joo and his spouse secretly placed a recorder in their child's bag and sent him to school, recorded the class, and then reported A to the police for child abuse based on these recordings.
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