Caregiver Claimed He 'Only Feigned' Threat, but CCTV Shows Horrific 4-Minute Assault

[Anchor]

Last month, a male caregiver in his 60s was sentenced to four years in prison by a court for beating an 80-something dementia patient to death. The assault took place openly in a multi-bed room of a nursing home, where other elderly residents were also present. We have obtained the CCTV footage from the incident.

Reporter Kim Minjun reports exclusively.

[Reporter]

This is CCTV footage from inside a multi-bed room at a nursing home in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, in November last year.

As caregiver A, who is in his 60s, brings a razor close to the elderly man's face, the senior citizen pushes it away as if startled.

In response, A grabs him by the back of the neck, presses him down, and kicks him with his knee, knocking him over.

He then takes off his slipper and strikes the man's face with it before shoving him onto the bed.

He also twists the man's arm and slaps him hard on the cheek.

The assault on the dementia patient in his 80s continued for nearly four minutes until another caregiver intervened.

The nursing home explained that they later noticed the victim acting unusually, checked the CCTV footage showing the assault, and immediately transferred him to a university hospital.

[Grandson of the victim: (I heard that) because he was in the restroom for too long, they went in two or three times to check on him, and he was sweating so profusely that one of the caregivers helped him out.]

The hospital diagnosed him with a "traumatic subdural hemorrhage," a condition where blood pools beneath the membrane surrounding the brain due to external impact.

The victim passed away the following day. The incident occurred when the caregiver offered to shave him, just a day before a scheduled family visit.

Prosecutors demanded an eight-year prison sentence for A on charges of bodily injury resulting in death, and a first-instance court sentenced him to four years in prison last month.

A initially denied the charges, claiming he only feigned a threat. However, once the CCTV footage was released, he changed his story, claiming he acted in self-defense, but the court rejected this argument.

[Grandson of the victim: It's a situation where we would still be angry even if he begged for forgiveness and apologized, but because he acted like that (denying it), I honestly felt an unbearable rage.]

The first-instance court pointed out, "Although the elderly man resisted, it appears to be an 'outlet for anger that went beyond defensive actions,' and the victim had no life-threatening issues prior to the assault."

(Reported by Kim Nam-seong | Video by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong)

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[Anchor]

Joining us now is reporter Kim Minjun, who covered this story.

Q. Assaults on the elderly by caregivers seem to keep happening just as they are about to be forgotten.

[Reporter Kim Minjun: In October of the year before last, a caregiver in their 50s at a nursing home in Incheon was put on trial for beating an 80-something patient. In March of this year, a female caregiver in her 60s assaulted another woman in her 60s who was suffering from Parkinson's disease. As the number of nursing homes and geriatric hospitals increases due to an aging population, the number of elder abuse cases in elderly care facilities continues to occur steadily, with 500 to 600 cases reported every year, as you can see.]

Q. What is the reason behind these recurring incidents?

[Reporter Kim Minjun: First of all, caregivers spend a lot of time alone with elderly patients who may have clouded minds or slurred speech, but there is a lack of staff to monitor or manage this. Legally, nursing homes must assign one caregiver for every two residents. For example, if there is a nursing home with 10 residents and five caregivers, these five caregivers must work in three shifts: day, evening, and night. In the end, at most two caregivers, or even just one, must care for 10 elderly residents at the same time. This means that even if unfortunate incidents like assaults occur during this process, they may not easily come to light. Experts point out that because the work is highly intensive and stressful, it leads to staffing shortages. Consequently, when conflicts arise between residents and caregivers, nursing homes often gloss over them rather than investigating them thoroughly.]

Q. Are there any measures to address the causes you just pointed out?

[Reporter Kim Minjun: The government recently announced that it is considering utilizing foreign caregivers or introducing care robots to overcome this shortage of caregiving staff. However, many experts believe these are still merely stopgap measures. In fact, elderly care itself is a task where emotional interaction between two people is extremely important. (That's true.) If we overlook this and simply increase the numbers in a formalistic manner, the unexpected side effects could be even greater. Therefore, experts advise that a more fundamental solution would be to strengthen staffing standards to reduce the number of elderly residents assigned to a single caregiver.]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.