A man in his 20s who grabbed a high school student by the collar and pulled him after the teenager spat on a road in Ulsan has been granted a suspension of sentencing.
Judge Lee Jae-wook of the Ulsan District Court's Criminal Division 3 decided on a suspension of sentencing for the man, identified as A, who had been indicted on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act through child abuse, legal sources said on the 6th.
Under a suspension of sentencing, guilt is acknowledged but the sentence itself is deferred, and after two years the case is treated as though no sentence was ever imposed.
The incident took place in November last year on a road in front of a bank in Ulsan. A, who saw the 17-year-old student, identified as B, spitting into a flower bed, pointed it out to him, touching off an argument during which A swore at B and grabbed him by the collar and pulled him twice, according to the investigation.
The court granted the suspension of sentencing after finding insufficient grounds to treat the act as abuse, citing among other factors that although A did pull B by the collar, he did not cause bodily injury.
"Even if A can be seen as having assaulted B in the course of an argument, it is difficult to conclude that this amounted to abuse," the court said. "Since the alternative charge of assault has been found to constitute a crime, no acquittal is being handed down."
