After Being Sued, He Cut Up a Family Photo of His Wife, Daughter, and Grandchildren and Sent It [True Crime]

[Financial News] The family photo had been cut apart with scissors. A picture of his wife, daughter, and grandchildren was sent to the victim by text message after being torn into pieces and shown on a phone screen.
The sender was A, the victim’s husband at the time. The two were legally married when the incident occurred, but they later divorced.
Before the incident, complaints and reports had already been exchanged between them. The victim, B, 57, filed charges against A last May on suspicion of assault and threats. After B fled to the home of her eldest daughter, C, A called C and threatened her as well, claiming she had not revealed B’s whereabouts. C reported the matter to the police, and the court issued a temporary order barring A from approaching C’s residence.
Late one night in June last year, A cut up a photo of B, C, C’s daughter, and B’s second daughter, all taken together. He then photographed the torn pieces and sent them to B by text message.
The threatening texts continued. From June 18 to 19 that same month, A sent B messages containing profanity and threats, including, "Just wait and see" and "If I get fined, I can just pay it, and if I’m detained, I can serve my time and get out." He was also found to have threatened her by referring to the fact that he was under investigation, saying things to the effect of, "If I’m questioned, something will come of it," and "I won’t just let it go."
Prosecutors said A threatened B in retaliation for providing investigative leads, including filing complaints, in connection with the investigation into his criminal case. He was charged under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes for retaliatory threats.
A was also found to have violated the court’s temporary order. On June 20 last year, the Uijeongbu District Court, Goyang Branch ordered him not to come within 100 meters of B and others until August 19 of that year, and not to contact them by telephone, text message, or other electronic communications.
Although the officer in charge notified A of the order the following day, he did not stop contacting B. He was found to have sent B 62 text messages and made 105 phone calls between June 24 and 29 last year. Prosecutors also charged him with violating the Domestic Violence Punishment Act, saying he failed to comply with the temporary order without justifiable reason.


According to the legal community on the 24th, the Seoul Western District Court’s Criminal Division 12, presided over by Judge Choi Jeong-in, sentenced A on May 28 to one year in prison, suspended for two years, on charges of retaliatory threats under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violations of the Domestic Violence Punishment Act. The court also ordered probation.
The panel said the crime of retaliatory threats was serious. It noted that the offense not only infringed on the victim’s personal legal interests, but also risked discouraging complaints and reports, thereby obstructing the state’s exercise of its punitive power.
The court pointed out that A repeatedly threatened B, his spouse at the time, and continued to call and text her even after receiving the temporary order. It also found that B appears to have suffered considerable distress from the ongoing domestic violence.
However, the court considered it a mitigating factor that A admitted all of the charges and showed remorse, and that B had petitioned for leniency on his behalf.
[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter