A top court Thursday confirmed a 27-year jail term for a woman convicted of abusing her stepson to death and burying his body to cover up the crime.
Upholding a lower court’s decision, the Supreme Court also confirmed a 17-year prison term for the father of 7-year-old Shin Won-young for neglecting the crime and helping abandon the boy’s body.
A photo of 7-year-old Shin Won-young (Yonhap)
Prosecutors said that the 39-year-old stepmother, surnamed Kim, had locked up the boy in a bathroom and abused him by providing him with only one meal per day and constantly beating him for three months until he died in February 2016.
The prosecution found that she had poured icy water and bleach on the boy to punish him for not being potty-trained, and left him on the bathroom floor in subzero temperatures in February, leading to his death.
The couple wrapped the body of the boy and kept him hidden for 10 days on their veranda before moving and burying his body at a mountain in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
The lowest court had handed down a 20-year jail term to the stepmother and a 15-year term to Shin’s biological father.
But a high court imposed a heavier punishment, saying, “The accused neither mourned the child’s death nor regretted it, and they were only busy destroying and fabricating evidence out of fear that their wrongdoings might come to light.”
The prosecution had requested a life sentence and 30 years in jail for the boy’s stepmother and his biological father, respectively.
By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)
