Mother gets prison sentence for abandoning her 2 children at daycare
Published: 16 Nov. 2025, 13:58
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[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]
A woman has been handed a prison sentence for abandoning her two young sons at a daycare center and fleeing after her husband was taken into custody.
The Cheongju District Court recently sentenced the woman to one year in prison for violating the Child Welfare Act by committing child abandonment and neglect. She was also ordered to complete 40 hours of a child abuse treatment program and banned from working at child-related institutions for three years.
A man who was indicted for harboring the woman was fined 3 million won ($2,100).
The mother was charged with leaving her two sons — a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old — at a daycare center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, on July 31 last year and disappearing for nearly three months until Oct. 20.
The woman, who has an intellectual disability, reportedly decided to divorce her husband and stop caring for the children after he was sent to a workhouse attached to a detention center the day before the crime. She then left the children at the daycare and went into hiding.
With help from the male acquaintance, she stayed at motels in Daejeon and Cheonan, South Chungcheong, until she was eventually apprehended by police. The man, who knew she had abandoned the children and fled, provided her with shelter and food and told police he did not know her whereabouts.
“The crime is very serious as the defendant abandoned and neglected children in urgent need of parental care, putting their lives and safety at risk,” the court said. “However, given that she has no prior criminal record and appeared overwhelmed by the difficulty of raising the children alone as a person with an intellectual disability, these factors were taken into account in determining the sentence.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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