Police daycare teacher referred to prosecutors for abusing toddler who wouldn't nap

A daycare teacher accused of abusing a 2-year-old at a police-run workplace daycare center has been referred to prosecutors.

The Gyeonggi Province Southern Police Agency's women's safety division referred the teacher, identified only as A, to prosecutors Thursday on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes.

A is accused of abusing a 2-year-old boy, identified as B, at a police daycare center in southern Gyeonggi Province in March. The alleged abuse included pinning the child's arm down when he refused to nap and forcing a toy deeper into his mouth while he was biting it. A is also accused of singling out B during snack time by making him stand while withholding his snack.

B's parents discovered bruising on the child's ear and, after reviewing the daycare's CCTV footage themselves, filed a report with police.

Police confirmed the abuse after analyzing two weeks of CCTV recordings from the period B attended the facility.

Police applied Article 7 of the Child Abuse Punishment Act, which provides for enhanced penalties of up to one-half more than the standard sentence when a person legally required to report child abuse is found to have committed such a crime, and referred the case to prosecutors.

However, a second teacher who had also been investigated on suspicion of abuse was cleared and not referred to prosecutors, as investigators determined the evidence was insufficient to establish abuse.