Appeals court commutes sentence for 'molar father' to life imprisonment
SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul appellate court on Thursday reduced the sentence of a man charged with sexual abuse and murder of a teenager from the death penalty to life imprisonment.
The Seoul High Court handed down the ruling for Lee Young-hak, 36, who has confessed to choking a 14-year-old girl to death in his home in September last year after drugging her and sexually molesting her.
He was sentenced to capital punishment by the lower court in February.
The appeals court retained the four-year prison term for his daughter, for helping him dispose of the victim's body. Her sentence can be extended up to six years in case of an infraction under the juvenile criminal law.
The court agreed with the lower court's ruling that the defendant needs to be permanently secluded from society. Yet it is not fair if he's deprived of the chance for correction and put on death row, it ruled.
The killing shocked the nation as Lee was publicly known after appearing on a TV show in the 2000s, which portrayed him as a poor man suffering from a rare dental disease while trying to eke out a living with a daughter who had the same incurable illness.
He earned the nickname of "molar father" after losing all but one molar while treating the disease.
Lee was also indicted for working as his wife's pimp and forcing her to have sex with at least a dozen men. He also beat her and filmed her and the men on tapes. His wife took her own life in September 2017.
The defendant faced fraud charges as well for raising 940 million won (US$836,700) through a fundraising campaign for his daughter's treatment and spending the money on himself.
It turned out that Lee had actually been living a luxurious life off government allowances and donations he received from those who took pity on him after seeing him on the TV show.
elly@yna.co.kr
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