CCTV Footage Captures Months of Abuse Leading Up to Taekwondo Death

[Anchor]

You may remember the case of Choi Do-ha, a young boy who died two years ago due to abuse by a taekwondo gym director. SBS has learned that two instructors who merely watched the abuse take place have recently been referred back to the prosecution. Our reporting team has exclusively obtained and examined over 300 CCTV video clips covering the two months leading up to the incident.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon brings us the details.

[Reporter]

In July of the year before last, three-year-old Choi Do-ha died after being left trapped upside down between taekwondo gym mats for 30 minutes.

The act was committed by the 39-year-old director, surnamed Choi.

Last January, the Supreme Court finalized a 30-year prison sentence for charges including child abuse murder and habitual abuse, and Choi is currently serving time.

SBS obtained CCTV footage from the two months prior to the incident, confirming additional instances of abuse and neglect by the director and his instructors that had not been previously revealed.

In the footage, instructor A simply stares blankly as the director ties the victim's limbs with a rope and spins him in the air multiple times while the boy hangs limply as if fainting. Instructors B and C are seen covering their faces and laughing loudly as the director swings his arm to strike the boy's head and assumes a flying kick stance while the child cries. All of these individuals were instructors legally mandated to report child abuse.

Among them, instructor A is currently on trial on separate child abuse charges unrelated to the deceased victim, after CCTV captured him pulling and lifting a crying child by the wrist.

The other two instructors had initially been referred to the court as child protection cases rather than through criminal proceedings on the grounds that they did not directly inflict abuse, but the court reached a different conclusion.

During a hearing held on the 10th, the Uijeongbu District Court stated that the case was not at a level that could be resolved simply through protective disposition under the child protection case process, and referred them back to the prosecution.

In the case of instructor B, CCTV footage captured him vigorously shaking the victim while the boy was trapped between the mats just two days before the fatal incident. During the court hearing, instructor B introduced himself as a "taekwondo instructor." When the presiding judge asked, "Are you still teaching children taekwondo?", he answered, "Yes."

[Choi Min-young / Mother of the late Choi Do-ha: When the children were treated worse than animals, (the instructors) stood right next to them and laughed. If (the instructors) had just come and told me about it, wouldn't things have turned out so the children wouldn't have died or been hurt...?]

Two years after the incident, instructors B and C are facing renewed prosecution review regarding allegations that they turned a blind eye to the director's abuse. Meanwhile, the next trial for instructor A, who is also facing his own child abuse charges, is scheduled for tomorrow (August 18).

(Video Editing: Shin Se-eun, Design: Lee Ga-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.