Woman who forced stepdaughters to eat urine and feces gets 7 years for abuse
A Cheongju court sentenced a woman to prison after finding she repeatedly abused her two stepdaughters for almost a decade, including not allowing them to bathe and forcing them to eat excrement.
A police logo is seen in an undated photo.
YONHAP
A woman who forced her stepdaughters to eat rice mixed with urine and feces was sentenced to seven years in prison, the Cheongju District Court said Wednesday.
The court also ordered the defendant to undergo an 80-hour child abuse treatment program and barred her from working at child-related institutions for five years on charges of child abuse.
The defendant abused two stepdaughters both emotionally and physically 53 times between 2014 and 2023 — from their elementary school years through high school.
The stepmother served the sisters excessively large portions of rice. If they failed to finish the meal within an hour, she forced them to eat rice mixed with urine and feces.
The sisters were allowed to shower and wash their clothes only on what the stepmother called “forgiveness days.” The stepmother was also found to have forced the sisters to massage her legs, physically assaulted them over minor matters and threatened them with a weapon.
The stepmother also coerced the sisters into sending their father text messages containing sexually explicit phrases, such as “come touch my body,” according to the investigators.
The father was unaware of the abuse because he lived and slept at his workplace, authorities said.
The abuse came to light in April 2023 after a passerby spotted one of the sisters, who had run away from home, and alerted authorities.
The stepmother initially denied the allegations and argued that the sisters had fabricated their testimony. However, the court rejected the defense.
“The defendant denied all allegations during the investigation but later admitted only those supported by objective evidence, including audio recordings,” a presiding judge said. “Her statements were inconsistent.”
“The defendant claimed the sisters ate excessively because they enjoyed eating and had poor hygiene because they disliked bathing,” the judge said. “But after leaving home, one of the sisters adjusted better to school and her hygiene also improved. I determined the sentence after considering the defendant's failure to show genuine remorse.”
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
