Child Abuse Attorney | "Acquittal" for a Child Welfare Facility Worker Charged with Child Abuse

The client who requested the assistance of the child abuse attorney had been performing duties of guiding and managing children at a child welfare facility.

The client had guided children without issue for many years, but one day, prompted by the statements of the victim child and the guardian in this case, the client came to be charged with emotional child abuse through a criminal complaint.

The matter at issue was the language the client used in the course of providing guidance to a child regarding the child's study and conduct of daily life.

According to the contents of the report, the client had continuously said to the child things such as, "You have no head for studying," and, "If you cannot study well, at least do not be late."

The investigative agency regarded the client's language as an act of emotional abuse that could harm the child's mental health and development and proceeded to indictment.

In particular, the client was classified as a person obligated to report child abuse crimes and in a position of protecting and guiding children, and thus came to be placed in a very serious situation in which even the possibility of aggravated punishment heavier than for an ordinary person became an issue.

It was a situation in which, if the client were found guilty, there was a risk not only of criminal punishment but also of being permanently unable to work in the related occupation.

Accordingly, judging that a systematic response to the criminal case as a whole was needed from the early investigation stage, the client requested assistance from a child abuse attorney of Daeryun Law Firm.

The child abuse attorney of Daeryun Law Firm established a strategy of re-examining the entire structure of the elements for the establishment of child abuse and the evidence.

First, the attorney intensively disputed whether the language at issue actually reached the level of harming the child's mental health or normal development.

The child abuse attorney emphasized that for emotional abuse to be recognized in a child abuse crime, it must reach a level that has a serious adverse effect on the child's mental stability or development.

In addition, the child abuse attorney organized as a matter of legal principle that the following matters must be comprehensively reviewed in order to determine whether the child abuse charge is established.

• The specific situation and context in which the statement was made
• The purpose and circumstances of the guidance and discipline
• Whether there was repetition or continuity
• The child's reaction at the time and the change in the child's condition afterward

Furthermore, the attorney closely analyzed whether the statements of the child and those around the child submitted during the investigation were consistent and credible, and refuted point by point that many of the statements were mere hearsay or lacked specificity and were not supported by objective materials.

Above all, the child abuse attorney emphasized that the client's conduct was not for the purpose of demeaning or intimidating the child but constituted statements made in the course of education and guidance, and that it was an act within the bounds of accepted social norms and education.

Through this strategy, the child abuse attorney persuasively argued that, based on the evidence submitted by the prosecutor alone, it was difficult to find that the child abuse crime had been proven to the extent of excluding reasonable doubt.

Child abuse refers, under the "Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes" and the "Child Welfare Act," to an act that harms or is likely to harm a child's physical, mental, emotional, or health condition, or normal development.

Child abuse is broadly divided into the acts below, and among them, emotional abuse is the type that is interpreted most broadly and that gives rise to disputes most frequently.

• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Neglect
• Sexual abuse

In particular, whether language used in the course of education, discipline, or guidance constitutes child abuse is determined by comprehensively assessing the purpose of the act, its severity, its repetition, and its effect on the child.

Daeryun Law Firm assists clients in child abuse cases through a one-stop response system in which a child abuse attorney, a criminal law specialist attorney, the Evidence Investigation Center, and the Digital Forensics Center work together.

• Preliminary review of whether child abuse is established
• Development of a statement strategy and response to the investigation
• Analysis of evidence and securing of rebuttal materials
• Response to the criminal trial and proof of innocence
• Linked response to administrative dispositions and occupational restrictions

In child abuse charges, the outcome is determined by ‘interpretation’ rather than by the facts alone.

If you have been wrongfully accused of child abuse, we recommend that you respond promptly and systematically with the assistance of a child abuse attorney.

If you need assistance, we recommend that you receive a consultation through the Daeryun Law Firm 🔗Legal Consultation Reservation.