The Seoul High Court is likely to sentence parents of a seven-month-old baby who was abandoned inside an apartment along with two dogs and starved to death, are likely to face 20 years jail term. The final verdict is due on March 26 The Seoul High Court in Korea started the second round of trials in the case of parents starving their child to death after the court sentenced the couple to 20 years imprisonment.
The couple has now re-opened the case against the verdict of 20-year jail term. The court had awarded rigorous imprisonment to the couple after taking into account the tortured child was made to go through. The corpse of the child was found inside cardboard. The court has granted 20-year jail term to the father of the child and 7 to 15 years imprisonment for the mother. The final verdict will be delivered on March 26, 2020.
Background
The couple (18-year-old girl and a 21-year-old boy) moved in together with their five-month-old baby into an apartment in Incheon, South Korea in March 2019. The girl was pregnant when they moved in. But soon they started fighting due to differences and by May 2019 their differences were irreconcilable.
After several fights, the couple fed the baby along with two dogs and left the apartment on May 25. Both checked into a hotel and did not even come back later to check on the baby. The mother returned only the next day and found that one of the dogs had hurt the baby that was injured on its legs, face and hand.
But instead of treating the baby, she left the apartment even without feeding it. When she contacted the father of the child in this regard, even he did not want to take responsibility and both decided that the child wasn't their responsibility and went ahead with their lives. As per the court statement, the father of the child returned to the apartment to click the picture of the fridge to put it up for sale. He too did not bother to check on the child and left the apartment soon after.
The couple returned to the apartment on May 31, six days after they had left the baby and found it dead. The couple then wrapped the child in paper and kept it inside a cardboard box. On the same day, the father of the child was said to have logged into a porn website, whereas the mother was reported to have uploaded party pictures.
Apartment was filled with a foul smell
The issue came to the fore when the child's grandmother (mother's mother) came inside the apartment to check on the child on June 2. The apartment was filled with a foul smell of undisposed garbage and dog faeces when she entered it. Shocked after finding the child dead inside the box, the grandmother held a funeral for the baby, which the parents failed to attend.
After hearing the details of the incident, the court sentenced the father of the child to 20 years in prison and mother to 7 to 15 years of jail term. As the prosecution did not appeal further, the sentence cannot be increased in the second round of trials. The final verdict is due on March 26.
