A special teacher convicted of emotionally abusing the son of webtoon writer Joo Ho-min in the first trial submitted a recorded transcript of a school meeting attended by Joo Ho-min and his wife two days after the incident at the appeal trial.
In the first trial of the appeals court on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities Act, which was held at the Suwon District Court's Criminal Appeals Department 6 (Chief Judge Shin Woo-jung, Yoo Jae-kwang, Kim Eun-jung) on the 17th, the lawyer said, "The first trial acknowledged the legitimacy because the victim's mother recorded it (the contents of the class) to confirm child abuse, but submitted the recording file the previous day as evidence that this premise was wrong."
The one-hour, 43-minute transcript recorded a school meeting on September 15, 2022, two days after A's child abuse incident. Teacher A, Ju Ho-min couple, and vice-principal attended the meeting.
The lawyer claimed, "A meeting was held on the 15th (September 2022) on the separation of group B (which was held separately from the case of A's indictment), and there was no mention of child abuse at that time."
After the trial, the lawyer told Yonhap News, "If you 'secretly recorded' to confirm child abuse, you should have checked it right away and raised the issue at the meeting two days later, but the fact that the purpose of the recording on September 13 (2022) was not to capture the situation of child abuse," adding, "That's why the first trial's judgment, which recognized the 'secret recording' as a legitimate act, misunderstood the facts."
The lawyer also pointed out, "The first trial court sentenced the expert hearing member without giving an answer to his request for reading the second opinion." In response, the appeals court said, "I will give the lawyer an opportunity to confirm this and state his or her opinion," and also decided to give him or her an opportunity to make oral arguments requested by the lawyer.
As a result, both lawyers and prosecutors will express their opinions on the reasons for appeal for 20 minutes at the next trial. Mr. A's next trial will take place at 5 p.m. on the 19th of next month.
Earlier on September 13, 2022, Mr. A told Mr. B during an elementary school class where he worked, "I really hate it. What's in your head?" and "The habit is very bad." Oh, I don't want to. He was charged with emotional abuse, such as saying, "I hate it, I'm going to die."
The investigation began when Joo Ho-min reported A to the police on charges of child abuse based on the recorded contents after he/she held a recorder to his/her son and sent it to school, and the first trial court suspended the sentence of 2 million won to A on the 1st.
In the trial, the evidence ability of "secret recording" became an issue, and the first trial admitted the evidence ability and convicted A of emotional abuse in consideration of the exceptionality of the case, saying that the transcript in question was a recording of a conversation between others that was not disclosed.
Reporter Lee Yu Na from Digital News Team.
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