Husband in His 60s Who Went to Play Tennis While Wife Collapsed Bleeding Receives Suspended Sentence Again

A husband in his 60s, who left his wife bleeding and collapsed at home to go exercise, has been sentenced to a prison term with a suspended sentence in his appellate trial as well.

Incheon District Court Criminal Appellate Division 5-2 (Presiding Judge Yoon Hye-jeong) sentenced A, a 65-year-old man indicted without detention on charges of abandonment resulting in injury, to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 2-year probation, upholding the lower court's ruling in today's sentencing hearing.

Like the lower court, the appellate court found it difficult to establish a causal relationship indicating that the wife fell into an unconscious state due to A's act of abandonment.

The appellate court explained, "The lower court determined that the time delayed in receiving treatment due to A's act of abandonment was not long," adding, "It is difficult to conclude that she would not have fallen into an unconscious state even if he had called 119 immediately upon discovering her."

The court continued, "Considering that it took more than two hours for the victim to undergo emergency decompressive craniectomy, even if the report time had been advanced by about 50 minutes, the start time of the surgery would have been shortened by only that much," and stated, "Given hospital records and other factors, there is no strong probability that unconsciousness would have been prevented even if a 119 report had been made immediately upon discovery."

Regarding the prosecutor's argument regarding the unfairness of the sentencing, the appellate court dismissed the prosecution's appeal, stating that "the lower court's sentencing is appropriate."

Previously, the prosecution demanded a 7-year prison sentence for A during the sentencing hearing in March of last year.

A was indicted on charges of leaving his 50s wife, B, injured after abandoning her while she lay bleeding on the floor at their home in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon, at around 6:12 PM on May 9, 2023.

He had stopped by home to change clothes to go play tennis, saw his collapsed wife, took a picture of her, sent it to his stepdaughter, and then went out immediately.

At the time, B had collapsed bleeding on the bathroom floor due to traumatic subdural hemorrhage, a type of cerebral hemorrhage. She was transported to a hospital by emergency services following her daughter's report, but fell into a brain-dead state.

During police investigations, A reportedly stated, "She had been reported for domestic violence before," and "I just left her because I didn't want to get tangled up in that kind of trouble with my wife anymore."

In fact, he had previously been booked by the police on three occasions for domestic violence incidents, but was granted "no-right-to-prosecute" dispositions after the victim expressed her wish not to punish him.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.