▲ Uijeongbu District Court in Ganeung-dong, Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province
A couple has received suspended prison sentences for abandoning two babies because their appearance or skin color resembled that of a foreigner.
According to legal sources on July 12, a woman in her 20s, identified as A, gave birth to a child while living with a man, B, in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, in 2005.
Until the birth, B had believed the child was his biological offspring. However, upon seeing the baby, he realized the child was of mixed race, as the baby's skin color and appearance were completely different from his own.
Concluding that the child was not his, B decided to abandon the baby, and A agreed to the plan.
One month after the birth, the couple left the baby at the front gate of an orphanage in the northern Gyeonggi region and fled.
A and B reunited in 2008.
At that time, A was pregnant by a foreign man, but B believed the fetus was his own child.
After registering their marriage, they gave birth to the child and raised the baby together in a container on a farm owned by A's parents.
After being raised for about a year, the child once again began to show the skin color and appearance of a foreigner as they grew older.
Fearing B's questioning, A decided to avoid the reality and run away.
In March 2009, A left the child with her parents, who were living with them, under the pretext of "going to withdraw money for my husband's payday," and then ran away from home.
B's suspicion that the child might not be his own turned into certainty following A's departure.
Ultimately, in the same month, B went back to the front of the same orphanage where they had abandoned the first child and left the second baby there before fleeing.
The couple's crimes, which had remained unknown for over 10 years, were discovered during a recent comprehensive investigation into issues related to birth registrations and unregistered infants.
While the whereabouts of the two abandoned children are not publicly known, it has been confirmed that they have grown up safely to date.
The court determined that A had willful negligence, knowing that her husband, B, would abandon the child when she ran away.
The Uijeongbu District Court (Judge Kim Bo-hyun of the 9th Criminal Division) sentenced A, who was charged with violating the Child Welfare Act, to a suspended prison term of one year and six months, and B to a suspended prison term of one year.
The court stated, "In particular, the defendant A is highly blameworthy for deceiving her husband into believing the victimized child was his biological offspring, raising the child together, and then abandoning her duty of protection by running away without permission."
The court further explained the sentencing, adding, "However, the survival of the victimized children has been confirmed, and the defendants have confessed to their wrongdoing."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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