[Anchor]

Two years ago, a young child died due to abuse by a taekwondo gym director. Two assistant instructors who neglected the situation at the time have recently been referred back to the prosecution. CCTV footage fully captured them blankly watching the abuse or tormenting the child.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon obtained the footage.

[Reporter]

In July of the year before last, 3-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.

This January, the Supreme Court finalized a 30-year prison sentence for charges of child abuse murder and habitual abuse, and Choi is currently serving time.

SBS has obtained CCTV footage from the two months prior to the incident, confirming previously unreleased details of additional abuse and neglect by Director Choi and the instructors.

From instructor A, who just blankly stared while the director tied Choi's arms and legs with a rope and spun him in the air multiple times, leaving him limp as if he had fainted, to instructors B and C, who only covered their faces and laughed loudly while the director swung his arm heavily to strike the child's head and took a flying kick stance even as the child cried—all of them were instructors legally mandated to report child abuse.

Among them, instructor A is currently standing trial on child abuse charges separate from the death of the late Choi, as CCTV captured him grabbing a crying child's wrist and lifting him 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 a hearing held on the 10th, the Uijeongbu District Court stated that the case was "not at a level that could end with child protection protective measures" and referred them back to the prosecution.

In the case of instructor B, CCTV footage also captured him strongly shaking Choi, who was trapped inside the mats, just two days before the fatal incident. Instructor B introduced himself as a "taekwondo instructor" in court, and when the presiding judge asked, "Do you still teach taekwondo to children?", he answered, "Yes."

[Choi Min-young / Mother of the late Choi Do-ha: When the children were treated worse than animals, (the instructors) stood right next to them and laughed. If they had just come and spoken to me, wouldn't the children have been saved from dying or getting hurt...?]

Two years after the incident, instructors B and C are facing renewed judgment from the prosecution for turning a blind eye to the director's abuse, while the next trial for instructor A, who himself faces child abuse charges, is held today (the 18th).

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