Reference image unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
Reference image unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

A couple in their 20s standing trial on charges of killing their 6-month-old son showed signs of having abused the infant almost from birth, court proceedings revealed Wednesday.

The couple denied the murder charges, saying they had no intent to kill.

Daejeon District Court's 13th Criminal Division, presided over by Chief Judge Jang Min-kyeong, held the first hearing Wednesday in the case against the couple, identified only as A (22) and B (22), who face charges including child abuse homicide.

According to prosecutors, the couple neglected their son on 140 separate occasions between Dec. 22 last year — when the baby was about 10 days old — and July 5 this year, leaving him home alone while they visited PC bangs or went on trips.

They were also found to have failed to provide the infant with adequate food, hydration, hygiene care and other basic necessities of child-rearing.

Prosecutors said the couple could have foreseen that prolonged neglect would cause the baby's health to deteriorate and that he could die from lack of food and fluids, yet they continued to leave him unattended.

The baby weighed 3.62 kg at birth and only 3.68 kg when he died on July 5 — a gain of just 0.06 kg over roughly six months. Prosecutors said that was less than half the average weight for a 6-month-old boy.

On the day the baby died, the couple had left him home alone for about five hours and 40 minutes.

They left their home at around 7:07 p.m. on July 4 and returned at around 12:47 a.m. the following day. By then, the infant's condition had severely deteriorated — he was passing bloody stools and unable to make eye contact, investigators found.

Prosecutors said the couple failed to seek medical attention because they feared a hospital visit would expose the neglect and abuse, and the baby ultimately died.

The defense acknowledged that the baby died due to insufficient care but argued that the charge should be reduced from child abuse homicide to child abuse resulting in death, saying there was no intent to kill.

The defense said the mother had given the baby fever-reducing medication on the night he died, planning to take him to a hospital in the morning, and had checked his temperature every three hours, changed his diaper three times and attempted to feed him.

"After sleeping for three hours, she checked on the child, performed CPR and then rushed him to the emergency room," the defense said, adding that the couple had voluntarily consented to an autopsy — circumstances it said were "wholly incompatible with any intent to kill."

The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 26, when the court will question the couple, with both prosecutors and the defense examining them about the circumstances surrounding the baby's death.


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