INCHEON– Police on Friday arrested a stepmother and a father for allegedly abusing their 12-year-old son to death, with a court-issued warrant.
The stepmother was charged with child abuse homicide, while the father was accused of habitual child abuse and other charges, the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said.
Earlier in the day, the Incheon District Court issued an arrest warrant for the couple, citing fear they might flee or destroy evidence.
The child, a fifth grader, died at a hospital Tuesday after being found unconscious with what appeared to be bruises all over his body at their home in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul.
The 43-year-old stepmother and her 40-year-old husband, the biological father of the deceased child, were apprehended on the same day on charges of aggravated child abuse resulting in the death of a minor.
The police later changed the father’s charge to habitual child abuse before applying for pretrial arrest warrants for the couple.
The agency said it has applied the charge of child abuse homicide only to the stepmother, because the causal relationship between the father’s alleged abuse and the child’s death has yet to be made clear.
The stepmother is accused of having habitually beaten and abused the child.
The couple initially denied their child abuse charges, arguing the wounds found on the child’s body were self-inflicted.
On Friday, however, he said, “I haven’t, but I have seen (my wife beating him),” responding to a question from a reporter if he beat the child, as the couple arrived at the court for the warrant review.
He also claimed it was the stepmother who decided not to send the child to school.
She received the same questions as the husband but entered the court without answering them.
The couple reportedly married a few years ago and have two daughters aged 3 and 4, respectively, in addition to the deceased child.
Source: Yonhap News Agency