Rehabilitation Teacher Forced Person with Intellectual Disability to Eat Spicy Peppers, Suspended Sentence Given

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] A rehabilitation instructor in his 40s who abused intellectually disabled individuals by forcibly feeding them spicy peppers at the welfare facility where he worked was sentenced to probation.

On the 13th, Judge Kim Yoorang of Suwon District Court Criminal Division 11 announced that he sentenced A (41), a rehabilitation instructor charged with violating the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, to one year in prison with two years of probation and ordered 240 hours of community service. Additionally, the social welfare corporation where A worked was fined 8 million won under the joint penalty provision for A’s crime.

Judge Kim stated the sentencing rationale, saying, "The defendant, as a rehabilitation instructor at a residential facility for intellectually disabled persons, took advantage of the fact that the victims he was supposed to protect could not properly communicate their intentions, which makes his crime quite serious. The physical and mental suffering of the victims caused by the crime appears to have been severe."

A was indicted on charges of abuse and assault against five intellectually disabled individuals residing at the facility from May 2018 to February 2019.

He forcibly fed spicy peppers to B, an intellectually disabled person who was sleeping, and also struck parts of the body for reasons such as dirtying clothes.

He is also accused of assaulting C, an intellectually disabled person who tried to leave the entrance, by grabbing and pulling C’s collar when C resisted A’s restraint.

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