A woman in her 30s who called South Korea's 112 emergency line to report that she had been stabbed, prompting seven police officers to respond, has been acquitted.
Judge Kim Hee-dong of the Uijeongbu District Court's criminal division found the defendant, identified only as A, not guilty of obstruction of official duties, legal sources said on the 3rd. She had been indicted without detention.
At about 8:40 p.m. on Aug. 20, 2025, A called 112 from an apartment in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, saying that someone had come at her with a knife and was stabbing her. Seven officers rushed to the scene, but the report turned out to be false.
Prosecutors charged A with using deception to obstruct police officers in handling a 112 emergency call. Under the law, deception in such cases means causing another party to be mistaken, confused or unaware in order to achieve the perpetrator's aim, and then exploiting that state.
The court, however, weighed A's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia along with police records of the call. "A was diagnosed with a mental illness at two medical institutions after the incident, and in connection with an earlier 112 call made the same day, an officer recorded that the caller genuinely believed a man from the apartment below had entered her home," the court said. "Based on the evidence submitted, it is difficult to conclude that it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew her report was false and thereby caused officers to be mistaken, confused or unaware."
