Court finds teacher guilty of abusing popular cartoonist’s son

Joo Ho-min leaves the Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday, after the ruling on a child abuse case involving a special education teacher and his son suffering from autistic spectrum disorder. (Yonhap)

A South Korean court on Thursday handed down the suspended sentence of a 2 million won ($1,500) fine to a special education teacher for abusing the autistic child of a popular cartoonist and internet celebrity, Joo Ho-min.

Suwon District Court found the defendant guilty of child abuse, based on a tape recording of a conversation between the teacher and Joo's son. The defendant was recorded telling the 10-year-old child during class, "bad manners are nasty, that means you. Oh, I hate you so much. I hate you."

"By repeated use of the clear expression 'you' and 'hate,' the negative connotation (of the expression) and emotional state of the defendant would have been directly communicated to the victim. ... (The comments) constitute a substantial risk of infringing upon the victim's psychological health and development, and the defendant can be accused of willful negligence," the court said in its verdict. It clarified that the comments were unnecessary and inappropriate expression when teaching a child diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

There had been doubts over whether the court would decide on a guilty verdict with the only prosecutorial evidence being the audio recording that was made without the teacher's knowledge. In a landmark ruling earlier this month, the Supreme Court dismissed audio evidence recorded without consent and acquitted the defendant charged in that child abuse case.

In this particular case, however, the court acknowledged that recording the conversation was the only way for the parents to see if their child was being abused, given the child's lack of ability to defend themselves -- due to disability -- and the lack of surveillance footage from the classroom.

The court dismissed the abuse charges made against rest of the defendant's comments, such as, "I don't know what's in your head," saying the teacher was speaking to oneself without the deliberate intent of abuse.

The court explained that on the whole, the lesson appears to have been intended to educate the child in question, and that it is unclear how much damage the comments inflicted on the victim's mental health.

The suspended sentence system is stipulated in Article 3 of the Criminal Act and acknowledges the crime of the sentenced but pardons him or her after a two-year probation period. It can be used with relatively lighter punishments -- up to one year in prison -- for those who the court decides is clearly regretful of their crime.

The prosecution had requested a 10-month prison term.

The high-profile case involving Joo, known best for the "Along with the Gods" webtoon series that was remade into hit movie series of the same name, sparked controversy across the country over teachers' rights and their difficulties in dealing with children that have mental disabilities. Joo was bombarded with criticism for filing legal charges against the teacher, with those in education circles questioning whether the defendant's comments constituted child abuse.

Yim Tae-hee, the superintendent of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, expressed disappointment over the ruling in a press briefing Tuesday. "It is regrettable that the particular nature of the special needs education has not sufficiently been considered in the ruing. I fear that the court accepting secretly-recorded evidence may lead to teachers being discouraged," he said.

After the ruling, Joo said he believed the incident to have been caused by the stress imposed on special education teachers having to handle a tremendous workload, and voiced his wishes that the education offices would overhaul the system to prevent such cases from happening again.

The cartoonist, who has been active mostly as a Twitch streamer recently, said he will hold a livestream via the broadcast platform at 9 p.m. Thursday. He has refrained from public appearances since the controversy started in September of last year.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)