Man in his 30s beats 3-month-old son to death after wife leaves home

A man in his 30s who beat his 3-month-old son to death after his wife left home — and after inviting a sex worker over to drink — received a heavy sentence on appeal.

The First Criminal Division of the Busan High Court's Changwon bench dismissed the man's appeal Wednesday and upheld a lower court's 10-year prison sentence on charges of child abuse resulting in death under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, according to Yonhap. The court also upheld orders requiring the man, identified only as A, to complete 40 hours of a child abuse treatment program and barring him from working at child-related institutions for 10 years.

A was indicted on charges of beating his infant son to death at around 2 a.m. on Nov. 24 last year at his home, while the child lay in a baby bed.

Two days before the incident, A had argued with his wife over his drinking and financial disputes, after which she left home, investigators found.

With his wife gone, A called a sex worker to his home and drank with her. When the woman left, A — heavily intoxicated — lashed out at his son in anger over the marital conflict and the stress of raising the child, according to investigators.

His wife returned home that night. The following morning, after feeding the baby formula and putting him down, she found he was not breathing and called 112. The child was taken to a hospital but died.

The trial court rejected A's claims that he had no intent to kill and that he was in a state of diminished mental capacity due to intoxication, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. A appealed, arguing the sentence was too harsh.

The appeals court dismissed the appeal and upheld the original ruling, saying A "targeted the victim child, the most vulnerable being in the family and in society, as an outlet for his anger" and that "there is a need to hold him strictly accountable under the law."