Dead girl's father denies beating her to death

The father of dead girl Ko Jun-hee carries a model of her body during a police inspection at his apartment in Wanju, North Jeolla Province, Jan. 4. The father, surnamed Ko, 36, denied killing his daughter. / Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The father of dead girl Ko Jun-hee, whose body was found last week, denied Thursday he beat her to death.

“I did hit her but did definitely not kill her,” the father, surnamed Ko, 36, said after a 40-minute police inspection at his apartment in Wanju, North Jeolla Province.

He also reenacted his abuse of the girl with a steel ruler and said he trampled her ankle in March, leaving her unable to walk.

Asked why, he said the girl gave his common-law wife, Lee, 35, a “hard time.”

Police said the girl could not walk because her ankle was infected, but Ko and Lee did not take her to hospital.

Reports said the girl, 5, had to crawl until she died in April. She had also been suffering hyperthyroidism.

Police said the parents appeared to have neglected the girl and gave insufficient care for her disease.

Ko buried the girl on a hill in Gunsan on April 26, a day after she died.

The parents claimed the girl’s home care allowance for six months after they buried her.

The police investigation is continuing.