Court hands down 6-year prison term

[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

A man in his 20s who repeatedly abused a former classmate he lived with and ultimately beat him to death has been sentenced to prison.

The 12th Criminal Division of Daejeon District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Byeong-man, sentenced the defendant, identified only as A, 23, to six years in prison on charges including assault causing death, according to Yonhap.

A was indicted after beating his middle and high school classmate, identified as B, to death at their shared residence in Daejeon at around 6:10 p.m. on May 22, allegedly because he was angry that B had not cleaned the home properly.

Investigators found that about a month before the fatal incident, in April, A had pressed a frying pan heated over a gas flame against B's body, causing burns. A was also found to have assaulted B in December 2025.

A carried out the abuse under the pretext of correcting B's introverted personality, investigators found.

In explaining the sentence, the court said the defendant "had repeatedly assaulted the victim, who could not easily resist him, and treated him in a dehumanizing manner even before this incident, dominating and controlling him financially and psychologically while exploiting him." The court added that "the victim appears to have died in extreme physical agony," and that the bereaved family had petitioned for a severe punishment.


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