3-Year-Old Dies After Being Trapped Upside Down for 27 Minutes... Shocking Truth Revealed from 300 Restored CCTV Videos

00:00 Intro
00:11 The Day Doha Left, Two Years Ago
01:01 More Horrific Moments
02:58 Current Status of the Three Bystander Instructors
04:22 If Only Someone Had Spoken Up

Do you remember 3-year-old Choi Doha, who died after being trapped upside down inside a mat for 27 minutes? For those hearing about this case for the first time, let us go back two years.

1. The Day Doha Left, Two Years Ago
In July 2024, at a taekwondo gym in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, 3-year-old Choi Doha lost his life. The head instructor, surnamed Choi, intentionally stuffed the child upside down between mats and failed to pull him out despite Doha's cries for help. Consequently, Choi was sent to trial on charges of child abuse resulting in death and habitual abuse, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Supreme Court in January of this year. However, the head instructor was not the only one who ignored Doha's cries of "Please save me" from inside the mat. There were also assistant instructors at the taekwondo gym. What were the instructors doing while the head instructor was abusing the children? It was from this question that reporting continued two years after the incident.

2. More Horrific Moments
What we secured are CCTV footage capturing the interior of the taekwondo gym for about two months before the incident occurred. The head instructor Choi had deleted the files, but they were recovered through forensic analysis, leaving the footage broken and cut second by second into over 300 files. As we reviewed them one by one, scenes that had never been disclosed before kept emerging. The head instructor swings 3-year-old Choi Doha in the air with his arms tied with a rope. Doha falls to the ground, losing strength and going limp. Yet the instructor does not stop there; he ties the child's arms together again and swings him in the air once more. The child goes limp again, appearing as if he has fainted. What did the instructor right in front of him do? He did not stop it, rescue the child, or tell the head instructor to stop. He simply watched. There is another video. The head instructor swings his arm broadly to strike the child's head. Even though the child is terrified, pressed against the wall and crying, the instructor lifts his foot as if performing a flying kick. And what were the other instructors, B and C, standing right next to him doing? They were just smiling broadly. There was also footage from two days before the incident in which Doha died. The head instructor placed Doha on top of a tall mat and kicked at him as if trying to make him fall, forced him to maintain a push-up position for about five minutes, and stuffed the child inside the mat once again. Rather than helping, one instructor approached and shook Doha violently. Viewing these situations solely through video broke my heart, but perhaps these individuals thought differently? These instructors legally qualify as mandatory reporters of child abuse. However, they offered absurd excuses, claiming that "head instructor Choi was violent, making it difficult to speak to him, so there was nothing they could do."

3. Current Status of the Three Bystander Instructors
There were three instructors in total. Among them, instructor A is currently on trial for child abuse. This is because CCTV footage captured A directly abusing the child by grabbing a crying child's wrist and lifting him up forcefully. As for the other two instructors, B and C, who were smiling broadly earlier, no footage of them directly hitting or abusing the child was confirmed. Consequently, they were initially forwarded to the court not for general criminal trials, but as "child protection cases." When referred as child protection cases, individuals receive only protective dispositions such as probation, commissioned counseling, and community service without leaving a criminal record. Then a twist occurred. The court determined that this incident was not at a level that could simply end with protective dispositions. Therefore, on the 10th of this month, the Uijeongbu District Court sent the cases of B and C back to the prosecution. This means that a new prosecution investigation could begin, and there is also a possibility they could be indicted by the prosecution and face criminal trial. Instructor B, who shook Doha while the child was trapped between the mats, even introduced himself in court as a "taekwondo instructor." The presiding judge asked him, "Do you still teach taekwondo to children?" Instructor B answered yes.

4. If Only Someone Had Spoken Up
Doha's mother said the following.

[Choi Min-young / Mother of the late Choi Doha: When the children were treated worse than animals, (the instructors) were smiling right next to them. If they had come and spoken to me even once, wouldn't the children have avoided dying or getting hurt...?]

Would the situation have been slightly different if they had dropped even a hint, perhaps while dropping off the children in the academy van? Ultimately, this is the part we must focus on. To what extent can responsibility be held not only by the person who directly committed the abuse, but also by those who knew about the situation and did nothing? Even now, there are undoubtedly children waiting for someone's help. For children who need active intervention from adults, if child abuse is suspected, you can push aside thoughts of "Is this none of my business?" and report it by calling 112 or 129.

(Reported by Lee Se-hyeon | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Lim Woo-sik | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Design by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.