The prosecution appealed the appellate court's ruling, which acquitted a special education teacher charged with emotionally abusing the son of webtoon artist Joo Ho-min, differing from the initial trial.
According to the legal community on the 20th, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office submitted a notice of appeal to the Suwon District Court's Criminal Appellate Division 6-2, which heard the case against special education teacher A, charged with violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities Act, on the 19th.
The appellate court overturned the original ruling on the 13th and acquitted A. The first trial previously suspended a $2,000 fine for A in February of last year.
The appellate court's ruling to acquit, contrary to the guilty verdict in the first trial, was influenced by the lack of acknowledgment of the evidentiary value of the 'secret recording,' which was a key issue in the case.
The appellate bench stated, "According to the case records, it can be noted that the victim's mother placed a recording device with a recording function in her child's clothing to capture conversations between the defendant and the child during class time. Therefore, it judged that such recording files and transcripts fall under 'undisclosed conversations between others' in violation of the Communication Privacy Protection Act and cannot be used as evidence."
It continued, regarding the prosecution's claim that the mother's actions constituted self-defense, stating that "the same law's Article 4, which states 'contents obtained in violation of the prohibitions of the Communication Privacy Protection Act cannot be used as evidence,' is not a provision to consider (the exclusion of legality)."
A was charged without detention for emotionally abusing the child victim by stating, 'You have a very bad habit. Ugh, I dislike it. I really dislike it. I dislike you. I also dislike you. I really dislike it.' to Joo's son (then 9 years old) in a customized learning class at an elementary school in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on September 13, 2022.
The investigation began when Joo's side reported A to the police for child abuse allegations based on the contents recorded by a recorder placed in the son's outerwear.