'Dad's not real': Woman jailed for 15 years for patricide

(Herald DB)

A young woman under the delusion that the world and her father were fake was sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering her father, a local court said Thursday.

Ulsan District Court found the defendant in her 20s guilty of killing an ascendant, for which the Criminal Act stipulates a harsher punishment than for murder. She was also ordered to wear an electronic tracking anklet for 10 years after release.

The court pointed out that killing one's parent is an extreme act against humanity and society, but said it took into consideration that the defendant has shown remorse and was suffering from various mental conditions, including schizophrenia, when she committed the crime.

The defendant was found guilty of stabbing her father, in his 60s, with a knife to death in January at their home in Dong-gu, Ulsan.

When the victim chastised her for destroying a chair and told her, "We would have to admit you to a hospital if you keep doing this," she stabbed him once in the neck with a knife. Her mother took the knife and went outside to report to authorities, but the woman got another knife and continued to stab the victim to death.

She told investigators she had committed the crime because, "the world is fake, and Dad is fake."

The ensuing investigation found that the defendant had been suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations. She also had a prior criminal record, including for assaulting her mother and threatening a stranger.

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