Daegu Appeals Court Upholds 2-Year Sentence in Infant Injury Case

The Daegu District Court’s 3-1 Criminal Appeals Division in South Korea upheld a two-year prison term on a man identified as A, who was charged with injuring a 6-month-old infant by throwing a soju bottle at the child while the infant was under the care of a relative. The appellate ruling came in a case that also involved allegations of neglect against two other parents, including the child’s father identified as B.

In the same decision, the appellate court also sentenced the two parents to four months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence for neglect, meaning the sentences would not be immediately served provided they comply with conditions during the probation period. The court ordered both parties to undergo 40 hours of child-abuse prevention training and placed them under supervision.

A’s punishment includes additional mandates: 40 hours of attendance at a child-abuse treatment program and a five-year ban from employment in child-related institutions. The ruling reflects the court’s view of the act as a serious abuse offense, separate from the neglect charges in the same case.

Prosecutors said that in November 2023, once left alone with the infant, A recalled past insults from B and then attacked the child with a soju bottle, striking the face and head and causing a closed-skull fracture among other injuries. The case also involved allegations that A engaged in similar criminal activity in 2024, ordering food via a delivery app for around 179,000 won and denying any order had been placed after the delivery arrived, effectively avoiding payment.

Separately, prosecutors asserted that the infant’s parents—two individuals including B—failed to properly care for the child, leaving garbage and waste in the living areas, creating an unhygienic environment, and not changing diapers promptly or ensuring essential vaccinations, constituting neglect under the Child Welfare Act.

The appellate panel stated that A’s crimes were of particularly poor nature and that there was no evidence of recovery of the victim, which justified upholding the harsher sentence. It also noted that the other two parents were given sentences tempered by the fact that they were maintaining responsibility for another child.

Beyond the specifics of this case, the verdict touches on broader issues that resonate outside Korea. The ruling illustrates how South Korean courts deploy a combination of imprisonment, rehabilitation programs, and employment bans to address severe child abuse and neglect. For U.S. readers, it highlights differences and similarities in how governments pursue child-protection goals, deter violent acts against infants, and use rehabilitation and monitoring to accompany or replace longer prison terms. It also underscores the role of technology-enabled crimes, such as delivery-app fraud, within domestic criminal activity, a concern shared by many countries with advanced digital economies.