A man in his 40s who shook his four-month-old baby to death, citing stress, had his six-year prison sentence upheld on appeal.
The Daejeon High Court's Third Criminal Division, presided over by Judge Kim Byeong-sik, dismissed appeals filed by both the defendant, identified only as A, 42, and prosecutors on Tuesday, maintaining the original six-year sentence on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes — specifically child abuse resulting in death.
The court also ordered A to pay 1.2 million won ($869) in expert witness fees from the litigation costs. A is accused of violently shaking his four-month-old child and intentionally dropping the infant at his residence in Jung-gu, Daejeon, on Nov. 17, 2022.
The child sustained severe brain damage, investigators found.
Medical staff diagnosed the death as resulting from shaken baby syndrome — a condition caused by excessively shaking an infant too young to support its own head — based on the pattern of hemorrhaging observed.
The first-instance court ruled that A "had a responsibility as the biological father to raise the child safely, yet failed to control his emotions, violently shaking a four-month-old infant, gripping the child's thighs hard enough to cause bruising, and intentionally dropping the child to cause death," adding that "the child appears to have died in extreme pain, making the gravity of the offense severe."
A denied the charges at trial, claiming he had accidentally dropped the child while tending to a fussy baby. On appeal, however, he admitted to the charges and submitted letters of remorse more than 20 times.
In dismissing the appeals, the appellate court said the original sentence did not fall outside the reasonable bounds of judicial discretion and that the sentencing arguments raised by both the defendant and prosecutors appeared to have already been taken into account by the lower court when it determined the sentence.
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