Two men have been sentenced to prison for subjecting a younger member of their high school club to nearly two years of abuse, including burying him in a sandpit and wrapping his entire body in packaging plastic.
Judge Kim Seong-jun of the Gwangju District Court's Criminal Division 11 sentenced two men, aged 21, to prison terms of one to two years each on charges including violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Violent Acts, the court said on the 8th. A 20-year-old man tried alongside them was fined 3 million won.
The defendants were indicted on charges of assaulting a student identified as B, who was one school year below them in the same club, on multiple occasions using steel pipes, wooden clubs and their fists. The abuse took place over about two years starting in June 2022, while they attended a vocational high school in Gwangju.
The methods were severe. The group dug a hole in the sandpit at the school's wrestling ring, buried B up to his neck with only his face exposed, and left him there for about 30 minutes.
They also tied B's arms and legs to a chair, put a dust mask on him and sprayed a fire extinguisher at him. On another occasion, they wrapped his entire body in packaging plastic so that he could not move, placed him on top of a locker and left him there for about 30 minutes.
Investigators also found the group harassed B continuously in other ways, including throwing his mobile phone to the ground and cracking the screen. They targeted him because he was small in build and reserved in personality, according to investigators.
The court took into account that the defendants were minors at the time of the offenses and that all were first-time offenders. While handing down prison terms, the court did not order them detained immediately, in order to give them an opportunity to make amends.
One of the defendants tried in the case was fined 3 million won instead of receiving a prison term, after being forgiven by the victim.
