Criminal lawyer, “Child abuse victims and defense attorney assistance are needed”
As child abuse has emerged as a serious social problem, the role and responsibility of the public in protecting children from abuse is being emphasized. Recently, a parent who was sent to trial on charges of brutally abusing a child to death through repeated assault and neglect was sentenced to a severe sentence of 30 years in prison. In addition, there was a case in which the biological mother was arrested on charges of child abuse and death under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and habitual neglect under the Child Welfare Act. According to the ‘2019 Key Child Abuse Statistics’ announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare last year, among the 30,045 cases of child abuse that occurred nationwide in 2019, neglect accounted for 2,885 cases, or 9.6%. Excluding the number of overlapping abuse cases, this is the highest figure following emotional abuse (7,622 cases, 25.4%) and physical abuse (4,179 cases, 13.9%). Neglect is a type of abuse that fails to meet a child's basic needs and includes abandonment due to negligence or refusal by the guardian, failure to provide basic food, clothing, and shelter, failure to provide sufficient care to the extent that the child's health is impaired, and failure to send the child to school. Failure to take neglect seriously and fail to respond also raises legal issues. Our law stipulates that murdering a child is punishable by death, imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for life or more than 7 years, and causing death is punishable by imprisonment for life or imprisonment for life or more than 5 years. It is stipulated that if serious injury is caused, the person is sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 3 years, and if physical or emotional abuse, abandonment, neglect, or other acts of abuse other than sexual crimes prohibited by the Child Welfare Act are recognized, the person is to be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or a fine of not more than 50 million won. Criminal lawyer Park Dong-il (Daeryun Law Firm) said, “In particular, those who are required to report child abuse, such as daycare teachers, are liable to harm as emotional abuse that harms the child's mental health and development is prohibited. “Parents of children who have been harmed will likely want to suffer irreparable emotional trauma and plead for severe punishment for those involved,” he said, introducing a case in which a daycare teacher was recently put on trial for abusing children. Attorney Park said, “We collected evidence such as CCTV footage at the time, revealed and claimed that the crime had been committed repeatedly over a considerable period of time targeting multiple victims, and as a result of assisting from the early stage of the investigation to ensure that they were punished commensurate with their guilt, a 3-year prison sentence and a protective order were imposed.” According to the reality, it is difficult to prove child abuse damage, including emotional abuse, neglect, and abandonment, except in cases where physical evidence such as physical abuse is clear. On the other hand, even if you are accused of child abuse, it is evaluated that the assistance of a lawyer is helpful in the defense. Attorney Park said, “It will be important to find extenuating factors with legal experts,” adding, “Unlike in the past, in child abuse cases, there are more actions that can be included in the act of abuse, so even minor actions and words can be misunderstood as abuse. Since it is not easy to check for abuse, prevention and fundamental measures from related organizations will also be necessary.” He added. Daeryun Law Firm provides legal services with a team of criminal defense attorneys, including former chief prosecutors. Currently, there are offices across the country, including Seoul, Busan, Jinju, Chuncheon, and Jeju. View original article - https://n.news.naver.com/article/119/0002522293