A teenager who lay in wait at an apartment and attacked a mother and her two daughters with a weapon he had prepared in advance was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years and a minimum of seven years in prison.
The Wonju Branch of Chuncheon District Court's Criminal Division 1, presided over by Judge Kim Ji-hyeon, handed down the sentence Thursday in the case of A (16), who was indicted on charges including attempted murder, aggravated residential burglary, and production of sexual exploitation material under the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth from Sexual Abuse. The court also ordered A to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program, barred him from working at institutions involving children and youth for seven years, and placed him on probation for five years. A prosecution request to attach an electronic ankle monitor was rejected.
A was charged after attacking a woman in her 40s, identified as B, and her two teenage daughters with a weapon he had prepared in advance at an apartment in Dangu-dong, Wonju, Gangwon Province, at around 9:12 a.m. on Feb. 5, in an attempt to kill them.
B sustained serious injuries to her neck during the attack, while her two daughters suffered wounds to their arms and shoulders.
Investigators found that A had obtained the entry code to the apartment building's main door in advance, entered the building, and waited outside the victims' unit. When B stepped outside, he forced his way in and carried out the attack. Immediately afterward, he hid in a flowerbed near the apartment before police, responding to a neighbor's report, arrested him at the scene.
A digital forensic examination of his mobile phone revealed that A had planned the attack in advance. He had searched for "contract killing" before the incident and had attempted to purchase the weapon used in the attack.
Investigators determined that A carried out the attack because the older of the two daughters had humiliated him at a hagwon on Wednesday.
"The defendant searched in advance for how to hire a contract killer and looked for a weapon to use," the court said. "He deceived the victim to obtain the entry code to the building and learned when her father would be absent, then lay in wait for 35 minutes — committing the crime in a meticulous and premeditated manner."
The court also rebuked A for showing no recognition of the value of human life or genuine remorse, noting that during the prosecution's investigation he had stated, "It's the same whether I kill one person or three — I just thought I needed to kill them quickly without getting caught."
Separately from this case, investigators found that A had, in November last year and January this year, made video calls with the victim and used penalties as a pretext to demand sexual acts from her, secretly recording the calls to produce sexual exploitation material.
The court cited several mitigating factors in determining the sentence: that A, at 15, still has room to correct his wrongdoing and improve his conduct; that a clinical psychological assessment by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office rated his IQ in the borderline range; and that he had no prior record of juvenile protective disposition or criminal punishment.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term — the maximum fixed sentence that can be imposed on a juvenile under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Specific Violent Crimes — on the grounds that the crime was serious enough to warrant the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The court, however, determined that an indeterminate sentence with upper and lower limits was more appropriate for a juvenile offender.
In explaining the sentence, the court pointed to A's age of 15 and the room he still has to correct his conduct, along with the borderline IQ finding from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office assessment and his lack of any prior juvenile or criminal record, as favorable circumstances.
Under the law, a juvenile convicted of a specific violent crime may receive an indeterminate sentence of up to 15 years maximum and seven years minimum, but the court sentenced A to a maximum of 10 years and a minimum of seven.
Following the incident, the victims' family filed a public petition with the National Assembly calling for harsher penalties for serious crimes committed by minors.
"If punishment is drastically reduced simply because the perpetrator is a minor, that becomes another form of violence against the victims and their families," the family said, arguing that clear standards and effective penalties are needed for serious crimes committed by juveniles under criminal age and other minors.
The petition has surpassed 50,000 signatures and has been referred to the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
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