A 40-year-old mother who killed her newborn daughter just two days after birth, out of fear the infant might belong to her extramarital partner, has been sentenced to a heavy prison term for infanticide and related crimes.
According to the legal community on November 10, the Criminal Division 1 of the Changwon District Court Tongyeong Branch (Presiding Judge Park Byung-min) sentenced the woman, identified only as A, to eight years in prison on murder charges.
A was indicted and detained for giving birth to a baby girl on January 13, 2016, and abandoning her in the passenger seat of her car parked on a roadside in Goseong-gun, South Gyeongsang Province, between 5:15 PM and 6:45 PM on January 15—two days after the birth—causing her death.
Investigations revealed that she turned off the car engine and left the windows open during the crime.
The average temperature in the area at the time was 5.73 degrees Celsius, conditions that a newborn weighing only 2.16 kilograms would have struggled to endure.
A initially told investigative authorities that she buried the dead baby in the ground, but later changed her statement to claim she threw the infant into the sea off Goseong-gun. The body of the deceased infant has not been found.
It was revealed that A had continued a relationship with an extramarital partner and became pregnant. Suspecting the baby was not her husband’s, A committed the crime out of fear that the pregnancy would be discovered.
The case came to light in 2024 during a full inspection of temporary newborn numbers conducted by Goseong-gun.
During the trial, A admitted that she left the baby alone in the car leading to its death, but argued that she had no intent to commit murder.
She also claimed she walked away to smoke a cigarette and think about how to explain the birth to her husband and family, and left the car door slightly open out of concern for suffocation, but the court rejected her claims.
The court pointed out, “She did not mention the pregnancy to those around her, and although the hospital stated at birth that follow-up observation was necessary, she was discharged. Anyone can easily recognize that abandoning a two-day-old infant at the time of the crime could lead to death.”
The court added, “Even after confirming the baby’s death, she did not perform emergency measures or ask for help from those around her, but instead placed the body in a plastic bag and abandoned it in the sea. Based on these facts, the intent to kill the victim, even if conditional, is recognized.”
The court stated, “The defendant’s actions can by no means be seen as the behavior of a mother witnessing the death of her child, and the room for social criticism is immense.” However, it also noted, “Because the time of the crime occurred before the abolition of the infanticide crime in 2023—which carried a lower sentence than murder—we cannot help but consider the level of punishment under the law at that time.”
Currently, A is divorced from her husband, and her extramarital partner reportedly lost contact around the time of her pregnancy and childbirth.
