Mother Sentenced to 5 Years for Killing Newborn Just One Day After Birth

A woman in her 30s was sentenced to prison for killing her newborn and disposing of the body, driven by the thought that she had to raise the child alone amid financial difficulties.

The 11th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court (Presiding Judge Go Sang-young) sentenced A (37) to five years in prison on the 14th on charges of murder and corpse disposal.

A was charged with giving birth at a hospital in Gwangju Metropolitan City in February 2017, being discharged after one day, then suffocating the baby by covering its mouth and nose on a roadside bench, causing respiratory failure and death, and subsequently placing the body in a designated garbage bag and disposing of it in a trash bin.

At the time, A, an unwed mother, stated that she committed the crime because she felt burdened by the surrounding gaze and believed she could not raise the child due to her financial difficulties, so she gave birth and killed the baby alone.

The court said, "Although the defendant killed a baby only a few days old, which is a very serious crime, considering that the biological father did not take responsibility for raising the child, the defendant’s financial difficulties, and the burden of having to give birth and raise the child alone, the sentence is determined accordingly," and imposed the lightest sentence recommended by the Supreme Court’s sentencing guidelines.

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