A 58-year-old woman in South Korea has been sentenced to seven years in prison for severing her husband’s genitals and flushing them.
Her son-in-law has also been convicted for his role in binding the victim with a rope and industrial tape. He faces a four year jail term.
The victim’s daughter, who hired an investigator to track her father, was fined 3 million won (S$2,600) for being partially involved in the crime, according to KBC News.
The parties involved in the case, including the victim, have been kept anonymous.
The incident occurred on 1 Aug 2024 in the quiet district of Hwado-myeon on Ganghwa Island, Incheon.
The defendant, identified only as A, had become consumed by suspicions of her husband’s infidelity.
Instead of seeking a divorce, she orchestrated a plan involving her daughter and son-in-law.
Source: Yonhap News
According to court records, her 37-year-old daughter, C, hired a Heungsinso, an unregulated private investigation firm, to illegally track her father’s movements via GPS.
Upon receiving photographic evidence of her husband with another woman, A’s resentment reached a breaking point.
Around 1am, the woman’s husband, D, 50, was drinking alone at a local cafe and eventually fell asleep.
The 40-year-old son-in-law, B, entered the premises while the victim was unconscious.
Source: Newsis
He used a rope and industrial tape to bind the sleeping man, ensuring he could offer no resistance.
A entered and launched a frenzied attack after the victim was immobilised. She reportedly stabbed her husband approximately 50 times.
The assault culminated in A using a sharp weapon to sever her husband’s genitals.
To ensure the injury was permanent, and the part could not be surgically reattached, she flushed the severed organ down the cafe’s toilet.
The victim was later discovered by emergency responders and rushed to a hospital.
While he survived the ordeal after emergency surgery, he was left with physical and psychological trauma.
The prosecution fought for a conviction of attempted murder, requesting 15 years in jail for the wife and seven years for the son-in-law, citing the brutality and the high number of stab wounds.
However, the Incheon District Court ultimately ruled the defendants not guilty of murder intent, convicting them instead of special aggravated bodily harm.
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The judge noted that while the weapon was deadly, the stabs were concentrated on the lower body and buttocks. The wife deliberately avoided “lethal vital spots” such as the heart or neck.
From her first police interview, A consistently maintained: “My goal was only to sever his genitals; I had no intention to kill him.”
The court observed that even as the husband’s restraints loosened, the defendants chose to flee rather than deliver a finishing blow, suggesting their objective — mutilation — had been achieved.
In his closing remarks, Chief Judge Kim Ki-poong (name transliterated from Korean) still acknowledged the brutality of the crime, citing the use of illegal surveillance and the failure to provide immediate medical attention.
Despite the horrific nature of his injuries, the husband reached a formal settlement with his wife.
He officially requested that the court not punish her harshly.
Under South Korean law, the victim’s “desire for non-punishment” is a powerful mitigating factor that often overrides the sheer brutality of the act itself.
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Featured image adapted from Munhwa and Daum.