SEOUL – The Supreme Court in South Korea has confirmed a 30-year jail term for a couple who abused and starved the woman’s two-year-old daughter to death, upholding a lower court ruling on the case, local media reported on Friday.

The 22-year-old woman and her spouse, 29, were accused of neglecting the child and the girl’s 17-month-old brother from October 2021 to March 2022. During this time, they did not provide sufficient nutrition to the children.

The girl died in March 2022 due to severe malnutrition and a brain haemorrhage.

Around that time, the man – the girl’s stepfather – found the child unconscious on the ground after eating a dog’s faeces and its food, but he did not help her.

It was also found that he had physically abused the victim when she went through garbage to look for food.

The autopsy on the child – who weighed about half the average weight of children the same age – found a single piece of carrot inside her digestive system.

Investigators found that the couple had stopped feeding the girl altogether for about two weeks until her death.

The couple received a government subsidy of 350,000 won (S$355) and alimony of 400,000 won from the child’s biological father every month.

The child’s brother was also severely malnourished and physically abused by the pair.

The couple were charged with violating Article 4 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes, which states that murder by child abuse can be punished by at least seven years in jail and at most by death.

The mother claimed that the child’s death was due to her husband’s beating, and not starvation.

The husband said he was not the girl’s biological father and should not be punished as the legal guardian. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK