A man in his 20s identified as A faces formal charges of aiding and abetting child abuse resulting in death, alongside fraud, following a newborn’s death inside an Uijeongbu motel.
Indictment Links Father to Newborn’s Death in Uijeongbu Motel
Prosecutors Uncover Deception Behind the Tragedy
The case centers on a newborn baby who died in December at a motel in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, after being left unattended in a sink for approximately 12 minutes.
According to the Newsis news agency, prosecutors indicted the father, A, on December 8 following a comprehensive review of case files, bank records, cellphone forensics, and DNA testing. Investigators determined that A did not merely commit financial fraud against the infant’s mother, referred to as B, but actively encouraged the sequence of events that led to the newborn’s death.
From Financial Crime to Charges
Initial police investigations handled the matter primarily as a financial crime. B had previously filed a complaint against A for fraud, alleging he took money under the pretense of covering abortion expenses after she became pregnant. Police initially accepted this framing and forwarded the case to prosecutors with a fraud charge against A without a detention warrant.
Gambling Spree and Court Sentencing for the Mother
Court and prosecutorial records show that A collected a total of 3,088,000 won from B using the pretext of arranging an abortion and later fabricating claims that he had hired a doctor to kill the child after the window for an abortion had closed. Investigators found that A spent the funds on gambling and motel expenses instead of securing medical assistance.
B subsequently stood trial on charges of child abuse resulting in death. The court sentenced B to six years in prison during the first trial, while prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence.
Appellate Proceedings Ahead
During the sentencing, the panel of judges noted that B carried the pregnancy in isolation without telling people around her and struggled to make rational decisions under extreme distress following the birth. However, the court emphasized that the newborn died without ever being named.
Both B and the prosecution filed appeals, and appellate proceedings remain active, according to the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office Gongju Branch.