A view of the Seoul Court Complex in Seocho-gu, Seoul where the Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court are located. Hankook Ilbo file photo
An elderly woman in her 70s, who was handed over to trial for the murder of her 50-year-old son who weighed more than 100 kg, was acquitted in the first trial following the first trial. It is because it is difficult to believe the confession of the old woman that she killed his son. Rather, the court raised the possibility that a third person was present at the scene, saying that it was doubtful whether the grandmother was alone with her son at the time of the incident.
Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1-2 (Chief Eom Sang-pil, Shim Dam, Lee Seung-ryun) acquitted A (78), who was charged with murder, on the 1st. Person A was arrested and charged with killing his son B (50) by strangling him with a towel after hitting the head of his son B (50) with a bottle of soju at his home in Michuhol-gu, Incheon in April 2020.
At the time, Mr. A was arrested as a current criminal by the police who directly reported to 112, saying, “I strangled my son.” He stated, “My son was insane when he only drank alcohol. He committed a crime by fighting his daughter.”
However, the court pointed out, “The statement of the accused (old mother) may be the motive or background for the murder of the son,” but “It is difficult to believe that the suspicion has been completely resolved as to whether the confession is the same as what he experienced.”
The court especially suspected that the room had been cleaned too much right after the crime. It took three or four minutes for the police to arrive at the scene after the old woman called 112, and it is questionable whether they were able to clean up the soju bottle fragments during that time.
The court also found that the daughter’s statement that her grandmother left the house before committing the crime was not credible. The daughter testified that “the victim was not attacked and survived when she left her home,” but the court found “the statement (her daughter’s court) was inconsistent and lacking in specificity.”
The court concluded, “It is difficult to believe the confession of the accused and the testimony of his daughter, and it is doubtful whether the fact that there were only the accused and the victim at the crime scene is genuine.”
The court acquitted A, saying, “It would be more painful than living for several years in prison for the court not to believe the words ‘I killed my son’ to the accused and to acquit him while suspecting his daughter.”
Kim Young-hoon reporter huni@hankookilbo.com
