If there was Jeong-in in Korea, there was Eerika in Finland.



In 2012, nine years ago, Erica, who was then eight years old, was killed by her father and her girlfriend.

Finland is a well-known developed country for child protection and welfare, and in 1984 it passed a law banning corporal punishment in the world, the second in the world.

However, even in such countries, some children die after parental abuse.

Between 2003 and 2013, 61 children under the age of 15 died by parents in Finland.



One of them, Erica, ended her short life on'Mother's Day' in Finland in sunny May.

A whopping 89 wounds were found on Erica's body.

It wasn't an overnight wound.

It turns out that the child's father and his girlfriend have constantly abused Erica for two years.

The first person who violated Erica was her girlfriend.

After pretending to be a doctor, she began abusing Erica's father because she did not know how to properly discipline her child.

He was forced to feed or beat him, and he was constantly punished by bouncing around in the front yard.

I even left a picture of this abuse scene.



The girlfriend made a horrifying statement.

The reason for forcing the child to run was'because of worrying about the child's obesity', but the reason for being forced to feed was'because of the child's eating disorder', consistent with contradictory excuses throughout the investigation.

The girlfriend said that Erica punished her for ruining household items and wearing rough clothes, but it turned out that it was her girlfriend who destroyed the items and made a hole in Erica's clothes.




On the day Erica died, they tied Erica's hands with tape and cable ties, taped her mouth and nose, wrapped around her with a blanket, and rolled the child once more with a thick cloth to lock her up.

As the child moved, her girlfriend punched the child's belly and used an electrical outlet to stab the child's soles.

The child, who couldn't breathe properly because he was curled up, died slowly for 4-6 hours.

The dead child had a crown on his head.

It was because they attracted the child to play'princess play'.



The prosecution charged them for murder.

An identity forgery was added to the girlfriend who was impersonating a doctor.

However, they argued that they were only trying to justify their actions and that it was to discipline the child and calm the excited child.

When the excuses didn't work, they admitted that their actions drove the child to death, but insisted that it was never intended to kill.

He didn't think the temperature inside the cloth could rise, and he said that he thought that air could pass through the hole in the top of the child's head.

The court sentenced them all to life imprisonment.

The ruling stated that the defendants knew that their actions would lead to the child's death, and that the guilt was heavy by taking a cruel killing method that inflicted terrible physical and mental suffering on the child.



Before Erica died, there were several opportunities to save Erica.

Around Erica, there were neighbors who wondered at the child who kept running in the yard, a school teacher who was worried about Erica going to school with a bruised face, and her birth mother who saw various signs of abuse that had been done to Erica, all of whom reported 11 times to the competent authorities. .

However, all the results of the investigation of Erica's father were'no charges'.



On one occasion, Erica was separated from her father and entrusted elsewhere.

But soon after, the decision was made to return to his father.

Erica resisted not wanting to go to her father's house, but to no avail.

After returning home, the situation worsened, and more wounds were found on the child's body.

Erica's mother asked the court for custody, but the court did not.



As it was revealed that the state agency was virtually bystander, 11 Helsinki child protection and medical officials were prosecuted, and 2 were convicted.

As the whole story of the incident was revealed, the Finnish people were angry and the media was shaken day after day.

Eventually, the Finnish government admitted that this incident revealed a major flaw in the Finnish child protection system, and for the first time created a working group to investigate a single incident.



First of all, Finland was also found to have a shortage of manpower in relation to child protection.

The number of children handled by one social worker is appropriate for 20 to 50 children, but in reality, it was enough to handle 160 more.

In addition, cooperation between various public institutions related to child protection was not properly performed. For example, when the police received a report and handed over the case to a child protection agency, the police did not know the progress of the future.

This is because the protection of the information of the institution was considered more important than the rights and interests of children.

Many institutions, including schools, police stations, medical institutions, and child protection institutions, were involved, but it was confirmed that none of the institutions properly understood the whole situation.

It was also pointed out that the child's wounds were not properly identified as traces of abuse and the case of not listening to the child's opinion.



Following the Erica incident, Finland has further strengthened material/human resources related to child protection and improved child protection policies and legislation.

The core contents are as follows.


1. Close cooperation of various institutions related to child protection


2. Observation of more active signs of abuse


3. Regular and comprehensive evaluation of the adequacy of child residence


4. Complete investigation of the abuse of deceased children's families


5. Reporting of abuse-related clues, etc.


Most importantly, this incident triggered the Finnish people to act.

This is because the success of child protection is not only through legislation and government efforts.

Like the famous African proverb,'It takes a village to raise a child', we look at the children around us with the mind of'seeing the fire again', and if anything strange is found There is a desperate need for a citizenship to report right away.

In Finland, reports of child protection are increasing every year.

If it's not a child's abuse, but a child's problem, an increasing number of citizens light up their eyes and report any suspicion.



Our children who shouldn't be hit with flowers, we must protect them together so that they do not become flowers that break before they bloom.

Finland, who suffered from Erica, reorganized the social system by referring to Britain, where a similar incident occurred earlier.

It is clear what we will do after losing Jeong-in.



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