A teenage mother and a father in his 20s were sentenced to prison for the neglect of their newborn baby for five days and leaving it to starve to death. 

Incheon District Court on Thursday ordered 20 years of imprisonment to the 21-year-old father on charges of murder, abandonment of a body and negligence of a child. The 18-year-old mother faces a minimum of seven years to a maximum of 15 years of prison on the same charges. In Korea, where the age of adulthood is 19, juvenile law states that a minor convicted of a crime with more than two years of jail be ordered an indeterminate sentence. 

The couple allegedly left their 7-month-old daughter alone in their home in Bupyeong, Incheon, between May 26 and 31, as they went out drinking with friends and playing computer games all the while.

Investigations showed the father found the baby alive on May 27 when he dropped by the house and found her dead four days later. When they realized the baby was dead, the couple put the body inside a box and left the house again.

The baby’s maternal grandfather discovered the baby’s body on June 2 and reported the case to police.

The court applied charges of murder -- instead of child abuse resulting in death as claimed by the couple’s attorney -- to the offenders on the belief they were aware that the baby could die from negligence.

“The victim was only 7 months old when she died and, not being able to drink or eat, would have gone through tremendous pain before death,” the judge addressed the court in the ruling. “Considering the cruelty of their crime, it would be wrong to not sentence heavy punishment on the offenders.”


By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)