Seok Mo (50), who was found to be the mother of a 3-year-old girl found dead in a villa in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of probation in a remand trial.
He was acquitted of the child-swapping charge.
The 1st Criminal Appeal Division of the Daegu District Court broke the lower court sentenced to 8 years in prison and sentenced to 2 years in prison and 3 years of probation in the remand trial against Mr.
Previously, the prosecution sought 13 years in prison as in the first and second trials.
The judge said, "It is judged that the evidence submitted by the prosecutor for the alleged abduction of a minor cannot be seen as proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused abducted the child by swapping."
"We judge that this part of the indictment corresponds to the case where there is no proof of the crime, so the accused is acquitted and convicted on the charge of attempting to conceal the body."
Mr. Seok was put on trial for allegedly stealing a girl born by her biological daughter, Kim Mo (24), secretly swapped with a girl she gave birth to at a Gumi gynecology clinic between late March and early April 2018. .
In addition, on February 9, 2021, after finding a 3-year-old girl hiding in the villa where Mr. Kim lived, he was also accused of trying to move the child's body in a box for burial before reporting it to the police.
At the trial, Mr. Seok denied the charges, saying that he did not give birth to a child at the time and did not switch, but the courts of the first and second trials recognized both charges as guilty and sentenced him to eight years in prison.
However, the Supreme Court overturned the original trial and sent the case back to the Daegu District Court, saying that the child-swapping crime was not proven and that additional hearings were needed.
(Photo = Yonhap News)