INCHEON– A district court sentenced a single father to five years behind bars Tuesday for choking his intellectually disabled five-year-old son to death in March after losing his temper over his son’s whining.
The 34-year-old allegedly choked his son to death at their home in Incheon, west of Seoul, on March 15, infuriated at the boy for staying up late at night and whining, according to investigations.
Following a divorce in early 2020, he had been raising the child alone for more than a year under grave mental stress, investigations showed.
In prior interrogations, the father said he had once thought about “giving up everything and killing the son and himself” after his attempt to give him up for adoption failed.
“The accused, while suffering pain from a ruptured disk, committed the crime accidentally out of anger over the victim’s whining,” the court said, adding the father, however, had not habitually abused the child.
The Incheon District Court also ordered the man to complete 80 hours of a child abuse prevention program and handed down a five-year ban on employment at child-related facilities for him.
Source: Yonhap News Agency