Acupuncturist Couple Sentenced for Abandoning Son 'Kopino' in the Philippines Under False Pretenses

Busan District Court. (Photo by Busan District Court)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Ju Cheol-in] A couple who disguised their autistic biological son as a Filipino mixed-race child, a 'Kopino,' and abandoned him overseas for several years were sentenced to prison in the first trial.

On the 9th, Judge Boodong-sik of the Criminal Division 4 of the Busan District Court sentenced father A, who was detained and indicted for violating the Child Welfare Act (child abandonment and neglect), and wife B, who was indicted without detention, to 2 years and 6 months in prison each.

Wife B was taken into custody in court.

The presiding judge stated, "The defendants claim it was a measure for the child's education, but they failed to properly consider the child's feelings of isolation and abandonment," adding, "It is difficult to see that they fulfilled their normal duty of protection and support."

In November 2014, the couple A was prosecuted for leaving their son C, who had a mental disability and was 10 years old at the time, at a child protection facility in Manila, Philippines, and cutting off contact for over four years.

According to the verdict, A deceived others by calling his son a 'Kopino' (Korean-Filipino mixed-race child) when leaving him, saying, "It is difficult to raise him properly because the mother is not present," and left after giving child support money.

A changed the child's name before departure to prevent him from returning, confiscated his passport, and changed his own phone number after returning to Korea.

The story of C was revealed when a successor missionary at the child protection facility posted an appeal titled "Korean Child Abandoned in the Philippines" on the Blue House's National Petition Board.

After seeing this, the Korean Embassy in the Philippines requested an investigation, and the police, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others, brought C back to Korea after four years and eventually located A.

However, C, who had been neglected for four years at an orphanage in Manila, Philippines, suffered worsened mental disability, was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia, and was blind in his left eye.

Before abandoning their son in the Philippines, the couple had not sent him to school due to symptoms of schizophrenia and had entrusted him to child dormitories or temples in Masan, Gyeongnam, and Goesan, Chungbuk.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.