A man in his 40s who beat his father after being told to cut back on drinking, and then forced his own son into a punishing stress position, has avoided prison.
According to legal sources, a single-judge criminal division of the Chuncheon District Court on the 24th sentenced the man, identified only as A, to one year and six months in prison, suspended for four years, on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act through child abuse, assaulting a lineal ascendant and obstructing the execution of official duties. Prosecutors said that in July, at his home in Chuncheon, Gangwon State, the man cursed at his father and punched him in the face after his father urged him to drink less and find a job quickly. Prosecutors applied the charge of assaulting a lineal ascendant to the attack on his father and the Child Welfare Act violation to the abuse of his son.
The man then called his son into a room and ordered him to sing, and when the boy refused, threatened to hit him with a plastic soju bottle and demanded that he take a stress position in which the body is bent forward with the top of the head pressed against the floor. When the boy again refused, the man threw a mobile phone at him, according to the charges. When police who responded to a report asked him to go inside under emergency protective measures for domestic violence, he refused and rammed an officer with his head.
The court said the nature of the offenses was serious, citing the assault on his father and the stress position forced on his son. It also noted that he had previously been punished for obstructing the execution of official duties and had twice been referred to child protection proceedings for violations of the Child Welfare Act involving the same child.
The court said, however, that it had taken into account mitigating factors, including that he admitted the offenses and showed remorse, and that he was receiving treatment for alcohol dependence and had pledged not to reoffend.
Separately, a 2018 study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found that of 532 child abuse crimes between 1998 and 2016, 75%, or 399 cases, resulted only in suspended sentences or fines, far outnumbering the 25% that drew prison terms. The findings underpin continuing criticism that suspended sentences have been handed down as a matter of practice in domestic abuse cases.
