”Forcing one-year-old to drink alcohol”... A couple in their 30s with seven children abused in a trash house in South Korea

A couple in their 30s with seven children abused their children in a garbage-filled house, causing the death of an 8-year-old child, and were sentenced to 15 years in prison in the first trial.
The Gangneung branch of the Chuncheon District Court has issued a report on the Child Abuse Punishment Act.
On the 22nd, it was revealed that Defendant A (36) and his wife Defendant B (34), who were on trial for child abuse resulting in death, etc., were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In addition, an acquaintance of the defendants A and A was arrested and indicted on suspicion of assaulting their children (habitual child abuse under the Child Welfare Act) while living with the couple.
Defendant C (33) was sentenced to five years in prison, and another acquaintance, Defendant D (35), who was charged with the same crime and was given an indictment without detention, was sentenced to two years in prison and remanded in court.
After the defendant couple's son, Mr. E (8), was diagnosed with kidney disease in May 2022, the doctor recommended that he be treated at an advised hospital.
He was indicted on suspicion of neglecting the child despite the fact that he had a medical condition, leading to his death in April of this year. He is also accused of neglecting his daughter, F-chan (4), despite the fact that she had an eye condition, leading to her serious injuries.
The children were also abused, including neglect and assault, between January last year and April this year. The defendants, A and B, were addicted to entertainment and neglected their children in a trash-filled home. They also drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes at home.
Acquaintances would come and go to smoke and have fun together. He would sometimes force his one-year-old child to drink alcohol. He would also verbally abuse and hit his mother on a daily basis.
The local government provided the couple with an average monthly child-rearing allowance of 4.5 million won (approximately 480,000 yen), but they used up all of this money on entertainment.
When the subsidy ran out, he signed up for mobile phones in his children's names and resold them to cover the costs. The court ruled that "after the children went to bed, he would drink alcohol and go to karaoke, and he would not eat proper nutritious meals.
"By not providing food, clothing and shelter, and dressing the child in unwashed clothes, the child's development has been significantly hindered," he said.
Regarding E's death, he pointed out that "even immediately after his child's death, rather than mourning, he was desperate to conceal his outing just before his death and to cover up his crime."