Daycare director sentenced to 19 years in death of infant

The mother of the infant holds the picture of the child that died of suffocation at a daycare center, [JOONGANG ILBO]

A Suwon court on Thursday sentenced the director of a daycare center to 19 years in prison for suffocating a nine-month infant to death while forcing him to sleep.

The judge ruled that the daycare center director’s abusive act was serious, especially as it was repeated and finally led to the death of a child.

“However, it is difficult to simply conclude that the murder was intentional,” the judge said. “The defendant, after realizing that the child stopped breathing, called 119 and didn’t stop performing CPR until emergency respondents arrived.”

In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered 120 hours in a child abuse prevention program and a 10-year ban on employment in child-related institutions.

The nine-month old infant with Vietnamese parents died of suffocation just a week after he was enrolled in a daycare canter in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, in November last year.

According to police, the director covered the nine-month old child with a blanket and placed a pillow and a cushion on top of the child. When he struggled, the director put pressure on the child by lying on top for 14 minutes.

It was later found that the child remained under the blanket for three hours.

After the court ruling, the mother demanded the death penalty.

The family plans to appeal the case citing a light sentence.

The father of the child arrived in Korea from Vietnam in 2011 and married his wife in 2018. The couple had the boy in March 2022.

BY CHOI MO-RAN, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]