A district appeals court on Thursday increased the jail term of a 41-year-old woman by three years to 18 years for beating her 8-year-old stepdaughter to death.

In a lower court ruling earlier this year, the stepmother, only identified by her surname Park, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars for striking the victim multiple times in the head and chest at their home in the southern city of Ulsan in October 2013.

On Thursday, the Busan High Court sentenced Park to 18 years in prison, stating that Park had intended to murder the child.

“The court deems that Park intentionally murdered her stepdaughter,” Judge Koo Nam-soo said in his ruling, as the defendant had brutally punched the child in the abdomen for nearly 55 minutes.

Prosecutors had initially sought the death sentence against Park.

Public outrage over child abuse soared earlier this year following another incident of a woman kicking her 8-year-old stepdaughter to death in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province. It was later revealed that the stepmother had also coerced the victim’s 12-year-old sister to lie and claim responsibility for her sister’s death.

The two incidents prompted judicial authorities to toughen penalties on child abuse cases and to make full preparations for the implementation of a revised law on preventing child abuse, which went into effect in September.

Under the revision, police were given the authority to issue a restraining order against a parent accused of child abuse until the court has reviewed the case. Previously, only courts were allowed to issue such orders. (Yonhap)