By Lee Kyung-min
A district court sentenced a 72 year old man, who injured his 41 year old son with a knife, to three years in prison, suspended for five years.
The Seoul Western District Court said Sunday that it found the father, guilty of attempted murder, but said that the court recognizes that he snapped under duress at the time of the incident.
According to court documents, the son had not held any job since completing military service in his 20s, and had been living with his father, asking him for money for more than 20 years.
The son asked the father to give him money for him to settle down in a rural area, and the father agreed to do so by putting his house in Mapo on a lease, resulting in the two living in the basement of another house instead.
Shortly after the move, the father had to live on the streets for months, because the son asked him to leave so that he could have his girlfriend over to stay.
The son not only took ownership of the basement from the father, but also took out a 39 million won ($34,000) loan using the house as collateral, which the father discovered later.
Enraged, the father drank alcohol and returned home where he saw his son sleeping on the sofa. He snapped and swung the knife at him, causing cuts on his arms and abdomen.
The father called the police and fully confessed to the crime.
The court said that it recognized that the son more than contributed to the father’s crime.
“Attempted murder is in no way a trivial crime, but the emotional distress brought on by the son was the main reason for the father to commit it,” the judge said in its ruling.