[Anchor]

Two years ago, you may remember the case of Choi Do-ha, a young boy who died due to abuse by a taekwondo gym director. It has been confirmed through our reporting that two instructors who simply watched the abuse take place at the time have recently been referred back to the prosecution. Our reporting team exclusively secured some 300 CCTV video clips covering the two months leading up to the incident to examine what happened at the time.

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.

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

In 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 circumstances of abuse and neglect by Director Choi and his instructors that had not been revealed until now.

From Instructor A, who simply stared blankly while the director tied Choi's limbs with a rope and spun him in the air multiple times, leaving him limp as if fainting, to Instructors B and C, who stood by covering their faces and laughing loudly as the director swung his arm heavily to strike the child's head and took a flying kick stance while the child cried—all of them were instructors legally mandated to report child abuse.

Among them, Instructor A is currently on trial for a separate child abuse charge unrelated to the deceased Choi, as CCTV captured him grabbing a crying child by the wrist and lifting them up.

The other two instructors were initially 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's judgment was different.

During an interrogation hearing held on the 10th, the Uijeongbu District Court stated that the case was "not at a level that could end with child protection case protective measures" and referred them back to the prosecution.

In the case of Instructor B, CCTV footage captured him violently shaking Choi—who was trapped inside the mats that day as well—just two days before the fatal incident. Instructor B introduced himself to the court as a "taekwondo instructor," and when the presiding judge asked, "Do you still teach 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 by and laughed. If they had just come to me and said something, 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 over allegations that they turned a blind eye to the director's abuse, while the next trial for Instructor A, who also faces child abuse charges, is set for tomorrow (the 18th).

(Video by Shin Se-eun, Design by Lee Ga-jin)