Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Woman sentenced to 12 years for 4-year-old daughter's death
By Kim Rahn
A woman was given 12 years in jail for the abuse of her four-year-old daughter, which led to her death, Thursday. /Gettyimagesbank
By Kim Rahn
A local court sentenced a 34-year-old woman, surnamed Lee, to a 12-year jail term, Thursday, for confining her four-year-old daughter naked in a restroom in cold weather, which eventually led to her death.
The 12 years of imprisonment handed down by the Uijeongbu District Court was heavier than the prosecution's earlier request of 10 years.
According to the court, Lee confined the daughter naked in a cold restroom of their home in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, for about four hours in the early morning of Jan. 1 because she wet her bed.
The girl collapsed at around 7 a.m., but the mother left her alone without seeking medical treatment at a hospital. She later died.
During the investigation, prosecutors also found Lee hit the girl's head multiple times with a hand mixer, threw her onto the restroom floor, which also caused a head injury, and even confined her in a washing machine for a while.
“The fear and pain, which the young, defenseless victim might have felt in the cold restroom from Lee's crime, is even unmeasurable,” the court said. “It is not a normal disciplinary action or corporal punishment by a parent.”
It said when the victim lost consciousness and collapsed, Lee did not call rescue services or take her to a hospital. “If proper measures were taken, the worst outcome of death may not have taken place.”