Girl escapes horrific abuse from father

A story of an 11-year-old girl, who escaped her home after hunger and frequent beating on December 12, is reminiscent of the movie "Papillon." When found, the girl was wearing T-shirts and shorts, was in bare feet, and was extremely skinny with her arms and legs covered with bruises. After escaping, she went into a supermarket to grab something to eat, but couldn`t even open a snack pack. This story really happened in Korea, a country where per-capita income is approaching 30,000 U.S. dollars.

The father, the woman living with him without legally married, and her friend were having delivered food, and when the girl, in hunger, tried to eat leftovers they scolded and whipped her. The woman had a Maltese dog that is chubby, while the girl was losing weight day by day. It is stunning how a human being could be so inhumane. It was found that the girl`s father also had a trauma of having been mistreated by his father in childhood, and was immersed in computer games. However, this is no excuse for such horrible abuse that the girl had suffered.

When the girl was in second grade in elementary school, she was absent for long and her class teacher reported her to police of child abuse. But the police refused to take the case saying teachers are not obligated to report according to child welfare law. After moving to Incheon, her father didn`t send his daughter to school and didn`t allow her go outside the house. The girl was missing but no one looked for her. Eventually the girl herself chose to end the hellish life. Just as the main character of the movie "Papillon" escaped from prison in an isolated island, the girl escaped from hell.

Even though punishment against child abuse has been strengthened after the stepdaughters in Ulsan and Chilgok were beaten to death in 2013, maximum penalty is still five years in prison. Many child abuses are murder cases rather than simple mistreatment and ignorance. The stepmother in Ulsan, who beat her stepdaughter to death after the child asked her to send her to a school field trip, was applied murder decision and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. More recently, a 40 something woman beat a 25-month-old baby and had the bay eat spicy pepper leading the baby to death and was also applied murder case with 20 years in prison. The strictest law should be applied to the guardians of the girl in the latest case.

shchung@donga.com