The woman standing trial for fatally beating her stepdaughter tells Korean media,
“I never abused [my stepdaughter]. I raised her with love.”
The unsettling story of a South Korean stepmother accused of fatally beating her 8-year-old stepdaughter has just gotten even more disturbing after it was revealed that the deceased’s older sister is accusing their father of also beating them on several occasions and even of videotaping the little sister dying.
The dead girl’s 12-year-old sister, only identified by her last name Kim, apparently told police that her biological father videotaped her sister dying and later showed it to Kim, allegedly as a way to frighten her from telling authorities the truth, according to the South Korean daily newspaper The Chosun Ilbo.
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The father is facing up to seven years in prison after the prosecution charged him for negligence.
The stepmother, only identified by her last name Lim, is currently facing up to 20 years in prison for fatally beating her younger stepdaughter and forcing Kim into false confessing that she had kicked her younger sister. The 8-year-old was hospitalized, but later died from her injuries. Lim is claiming she is innocent of all charges, telling the Korean media, “I never abused [my stepdaughter]. I raised her with love.”
But, in a letter to the judge in the case, Kim said that she and her sister were abused by Lim in a variety of disturbing ways. She accused Lim of putting them inside a laundry machine and running it, pushing them down the stairs at their apartment building, and force-feeding them spicy red pepper.
In that same letter, Kim requested that the judge give Lim the death penalty.
“Your Honor, please order a death penalty,” Kim’s letter reads. “I hope that woman disappears. Please.”
Meanwhile, the South Korean media came under scrutiny by the Korean Women Lawyers Association for some of its aggressive tactics in covering this story. The group convened a press conference and accused some reporters of swarming the Kim, who went into foster care in February, at her school and even ambushing her in a restroom for an interview. Representatives from the human rights organization said they are preparing to file a lawsuit against the reporters for emotional abuse.
“Visiting children at school or other facilities in order to cover a story is obviously against the law,” Lee Myung-suk, the organization’s president, said, according to the JoongAng Daily.
The 12-year-old’s letter to the judge reads: “Your Honor, please order a death penalty [to my stepmother].
I hope that woman disappears. Please.”
The group also warned against the media prejudging the guilt of the accused, Lim, when the trial is ongoing. It began today at the Daegu courthouse. Addressing the great public outrage over this case—with Kim’s letter to the judge being widely circulated—Lee cautioned that the public should not paint all stepmothers, or stepparents, with a broad brush, especially at a time when divorce and remarriage have increased in Korea. “Child-abuse cases involving scorned stepmothers are relatively rare,” she said.
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