Stepmother gets jail time for abusing stepdaughters, including dumping food waste on one girl's head

A stepmother who repeatedly abused her stepdaughters — including dumping food waste on one of their heads — was sentenced to prison. She even committed further acts of abuse while already on trial for child abuse.

[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]

A stepmother who repeatedly abused her stepdaughters — including dumping food waste on one of their heads — was sentenced to prison. She even committed further acts of abuse while already on trial for child abuse.

The Daegu District Court sentenced a 52-year-old stepmother to one year and six months in prison for violating the Child Welfare Act. The court also ordered her to complete 40 hours of a child abuse treatment program and barred her from working at child-related institutions for five years.

In the summer of 2022, the stepmother was indicted for pouring food waste over the head of her then-11-year-old stepdaughter at their home in Goyang, Gyeonggi. The child had failed to throw away the garbage after doing the dishes.

In December 2023, at their home in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, she forced the same child and another stepdaughter — then 14 years old — to stand on the balcony for an hour wearing only their underwear, allegedly because they had disobeyed her. In June last year, she also poured food on the blanket used by both children because they did not clean up after lunch.

The woman had already been sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, for abusing the same two children in a separate case in October last year by the Uijeongbu District Court’s Goyang branch.

“The victims lived in fear due to continued physical abuse from a young age,” the court said in its sentencing. “Even while the defendant was on trial for child abuse, the abuse continued — the children likely experienced serious helplessness. The defendant’s actions cannot be justified as discipline or for any other reason.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY JANG GU-SEUL [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]