10-yr prison term upheld for mother for killing son due to uncertainty about raising him well


SUWON, South Korea, An appellate court upheld a 10-year prison term for a mother charged with killing her son because she was unsure if she could raise him well, court records showed Tuesday.

The mother in her 40s was indicted for choking her 5-year-old son to death while he was asleep at an apartment bedroom in Gyeonggi Province in March last year.

The woman told investigators she killed the son because she felt unsure if she could raise him well after his kindergarten told her the previous day that he is aggressive, violent and inattentive. She said she had also planned to commit suicide, but ended up killing the son only.

The district court sentenced her to 10 years in prison after taking into consideration the fact that she had suffered from depression.

Prosecutors appealed the verdict on grounds the sentence is too light, but the Suwon High Court upheld the lower court’s decision, saying all key factors have already been taken into account in the lower court’s ruling.

Source: Yonhap News Agency