A man in his 50s who assaulted his elderly mother and broke into his brother's farm shed has been sentenced to prison.
The Cheongju District Court's Criminal Division 2, presided over by Judge Lim Jin-su, sentenced the man, identified only as A, to one year and six months in prison on charges including assault and intimidation of a blood relative. A had been indicted and held in detention ahead of trial.
A was brought to trial after he grabbed his mother, B, who is in her 80s, by the collar and punched her in the chest at a residence in Cheongju in September last year.
He carried out the attack because B had nagged him over his failure to properly sort the laundry and had refused to give him money for alcohol.
The following day, A threatened B again, demanding to know why she had not done the dishes and telling her to "just take some pills and die."
A also faces charges of breaking into his older brother's farm shed without permission on eight separate occasions over three months beginning in May of the same year, destroying CCTV equipment and other property, and assaulting a nephew who tried to stop him.
A had previously been indicted on charges of injuring a blood relative and sentenced to eight months in prison.
"The quality of the crime is poor, as the defendant assaulted and threatened his elderly mother, and he has not been forgiven by his siblings," the court said in explaining the sentence. "However, the sentence was determined taking into account, among other factors, that his mother does not wish to see him punished."
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