Man who left bleeding wife to play tennis has suspended sentence upheld on appeal

A man in his 60s who left his bleeding, collapsed wife at home and went out to exercise has had his suspended prison sentence upheld on appeal.

The Incheon District Court's Criminal Appeals Division 5-2, presided over by Judge Yoon Hye-jung, sentenced the 65-year-old man, identified as A, on Wednesday. He was indicted without detention on charges of abandonment resulting in injury. He received the same sentence as the lower court -- one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years, Yonhap reported.

The appeals court, like the lower court, ruled that it was difficult to establish a causal link between A's failure to help his wife and her fall into unconsciousness.

"The lower court found that the delay in treatment caused by A's abandonment was not long," the court said, adding, "Even if he had called 119 immediately upon finding his wife, it is hard to conclude that she would not have fallen into an unconscious state."

It took more than two hours for the victim to reach the hospital and undergo emergency decompression surgery. The court said that even if the husband had called 119 about 50 minutes earlier, immediately upon finding her, the surgery would have started only that much sooner. There is no likelihood that reporting it immediately would have prevented her from falling into unconsciousness.

A was indicted on charges of abandoning and injuring his wife, identified as B, a woman in her 50s. She was found bleeding and collapsed at their home in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, at around 6:12 p.m. on May 9, 2023.

On the day of the incident, A stopped by the house to change clothes before going to play tennis. He saw his wife collapsed, took a photo and sent it to his stepdaughter, then immediately left. At the time, B was lying on the bathroom floor, bleeding from a traumatic subdural hemorrhage, a type of brain hemorrhage.

B was taken to the hospital by an ambulance dispatched after her daughter's emergency call, but she ultimately fell into a brain-dead state.

A reportedly told police during the investigation, "There had been a report of domestic violence before," and "I didn't want to get involved in that kind of thing with my wife again, so I just left her." He had in fact been booked by police three times in the past over domestic violence. However, because the victim in each case said she did not wish to press charges, the cases were closed without prosecution.

Earlier, prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison term for A at the closing hearing in March 2025, but the appeals court rejected the prosecution's appeal.