South Korea reduces sentence for principal who killed Vietnamese child

Principal Kim, who pressed a pillow on the face of a Vietnamese-American newborn until he died, had his sentence reduced from 19 to 18 years in prison after an appeal.

The Suwon District Criminal Court today sentenced principal Kim to 18 years in prison for child abuse resulting in death, in the death of 9-month-old Vietnamese-American baby Cheon Dong-min in November 2022.

In addition to the prison sentence, the defendant must also complete a 120-hour child abuse prevention program and is banned from working in child-related facilities for 10 years.

Relatives hold a portrait of baby Cheon Dong-min during the first trial on April 20. Photo: MT

Kim was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison in the first instance on April 20. The court held an appeal hearing today after Ms. Kim appealed for "unfair punishment", while the family of baby Cheon appealed because they believed Kim's sentence was too light.

Similar to the first trial in April, the judges said it was "difficult to conclude that the murder was intentional" and that some of the physical abuse allegations did not constitute a crime, so they reduced Kim's sentence by one year.

Baby Cheon, whose parents are Vietnamese, died after being sent to a daycare center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province for just one week. At noon on November 10, 2022, because the baby "wouldn't sleep", Kim placed a pillow and pressed down on the baby for 14 minutes. Seeing that Cheon did not react, Kim turned to look at his phone, leaving the baby covered with a blanket for 3 hours.

After realizing the child had stopped breathing, Kim performed CPR on Cheon and called 911. Kim was initially arrested on charges of child abuse and murder, but that was later upgraded to child abuse resulting in death.

Duc Trung - Doan Ninh (According to MT )

Source: https://vnexpress.net/han-quoc-giam-an-voi-hieu-truong-lam-chet-be-goc-viet-4680081.html