Teenager who copied ”weapon brandishing case” receives reduced sentence in second trial = South Korea

A teenager who brandished a weapon at a junior high school girl on the street in imitation of the Sillim-dong weapon-brandishing incident had his sentence reduced in the second trial.
According to the Korean legal community on the 17th, the Seoul High Court is trying him on charges of attempted murder.
In the appeal trial of 17-year-old Boy A, the maximum term was 5 years and the minimum term was 3 years. This was reduced from the maximum term of 6 years and the minimum term of 4 years in the first trial.
The actual release date will be decided. Boy A is accused of following two middle school girls near a park in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the evening of October 1 last year and attempting to kill them by stabbing them with a deadly weapon.
The prosecution determined that Boy A abandoned the crime the moment he was about to stab one of the victims. Boy A, who lived in Changwon, Gyeongnam, possessed a murder weapon and a blunt object to commit the crime.
He took a bus to Seoul and headed to Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, when he happened to follow a middle school girl who caught his eye.
Boy A had seen the crime video of inmate Cho Seong (34), who committed a weapon-wielding attack in Sillim-dong on July 21 last year, resulting in four deaths and injuries.
The investigation revealed that Boy A, who suffered from a mental illness, considered himself a failure like the villain "Joker" from the movie "Batman."
The prosecution determined that the boy felt joy when he saw Cho committing the crime, thinking that he was "strong and cool." It was reported that Boy A was addicted to playing violent computer games. Boy A
At the first trial, he stated, "The charge of attempted murder seemed cool, and because I was a minor, I thought I would be released soon. I thought I would be able to brag about it to my friends once I was released."
The court stated, "Boy A chose a 15-year-old victim whom he did not know as his target and attempted to stab her with a knife in a deserted park.
"Considering the motive, circumstances, content, and danger of the crime, the crime is extremely serious," the court said. However, the court also ruled that "Boy A stopped the crime of his own volition and it ended in failure.
"He is currently a 17-year-old boy who is socially and mentally immature and is in a mentally difficult situation, including depression. With proper education and treatment, there is room for his behavior to improve," the agency explained.
The court also ruled that the sentence imposed by the first instance trial was too heavy, stating that "Boy A's parents are also determined to make efforts to properly educate him and to treat and educate him."