"Tied to a Bed": Boy Dies After Seeking Help Outside Church Before Death

Specific details have been confirmed regarding when 11-year-old A, who died while living at a church in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, went outside the church and directly appealed that he was suffering abuse.

Controversy is expected to arise over whether the judgments made by investigative, administrative, and judicial authorities at the time were appropriate, given that it was a situation where child abuse could be sufficiently recognized on the surface.

Three days before his death, on the early morning of August 2, Boy A came out of the church where he was staying and entered a nearby convenience store.

According to a convenience store employee, Boy A was wearing a tank top and shorts at the time, and had a bruise under his left eye.

The employee stated that Boy A looked around the store without buying anything, and then blindly got into the passenger seat of a customer's car as the customer was leaving after paying.

Boy A then went to a police station with the person presumed to be that customer, and stated during a police investigation that he had been hit on the palms and soles of his feet by his maternal grandmother.

In response, police considered handing Boy A over to a protective facility along with the city of Cheonan, but withheld the action and sent Boy A back to the church.

Cheonan city and the police explained that they determined it was difficult to immediately transfer him at the time because Boy A's external injuries were not clear, and due to his psychological state and facility conditions.

Boy A, who returned to the church, was spotted outside the church again the next day.

This time, a nearby restaurant owner discovered Boy A, suspected child abuse, and took him to a sub-police station in Seobuk-gu.

Once again, Boy A stated that he was "hit by my maternal grandmother," making statements similar to the previous day.

As reports were filed for two consecutive days, police decided on and notified emergency measures for maternal grandmother B on August 3, and applied to the court for a restraining order.

However, the court dismissed the application two days later on August 5.

Police stated that the court instead issued a decision order recognizing only "counseling and education commission."

Following the court's decision, police discussed ways to separate Boy A into a protective facility with the city of Cheonan again, but immediate separation was not carried out this time either.

Regarding this, police explained that both reports filed on August 2 and August 3 pointed only to the maternal grandmother as the perpetrator, and there was no initial mention of corporal punishment by the pastor.

They explained that because Boy A stated he was hit by his maternal grandmother but expressed that he wanted to go to the pastor, the pastor was not a subject for separation review during the initial investigation stage.

Ultimately, Boy A returned to the church once more, and was found at 8:49 PM on August 5—two days after the second report and the same day the court dismissed the separation request—suffering from high fever and impaired consciousness at the church.

Emergency workers who were dispatched after a report that "the child is sick" transferred Boy A to Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital, but he passed away about three hours later.

Despite the child directly appealing for help regarding abuse to investigative authorities for two consecutive days before dying, none of the related authorities prevented Boy A's death.

Medical staff who confirmed signs suspected of child abuse on the dead child's body reported it to the police, initiating a full-scale investigation belatedly.

Police launched an investigation placing child abuse resulting in death charges on three adults who were with the child.

The subjects are a total of three people: maternal grandmother B, whom the child pointed out as the perpetrator of abuse; church pastor C; and another adult presumed to be a family member of the pastor.

Based on a witness statement that "the child was tied to a bed" and external injuries on the child's body, police first arrested Pastor C on charges of child abuse resulting in death on August 10.

It is estimated that after returning home from the sub-police station on August 3, the child was tied to a bed for a certain period of time, and subsequently died for unknown reasons.

The late Boy A is known to have an intellectual disability.

On August 11, presiding judge Park Heon-haeng of the Cheonan branch of the Daejeon District Court issued an arrest warrant after conducting a pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) for maternal grandmother B of the late Boy A, citing the gravity of the case and the risk of flight.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.