Care worker who beat an elderly person with dementia to death could be rehired at a care facility [Video]

[Financial News] It has emerged that a care worker who beat an elderly person with dementia in their 80s to death could be rehired by a long-term care facility even if the conviction becomes final. This is due to a major loophole in current law.

According to an SBS News report on the 6th, an incident occurred last November at a nursing home in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, in which a male care worker in his 60s, identified as A, assaulted an elderly person with dementia in their 80s, causing their death.
At the time, A denied the charges, saying, “I only pretended to threaten them.” In May, the court of first instance found him guilty of causing death by injury and sentenced him to four years in prison.
A appealed, but the second-instance court reached the same conclusion last month.
The problem is that neither the first- nor second-instance court issued an employment-ban order alongside its ruling. That is because causing death by injury is not defined as an offense subject to an employment-ban order under the Welfare of Older Persons Act.
The Welfare of Older Persons Act defines injury, abandonment, threats and assault as elder-abuse-related offenses, but leaves out more serious crimes such as murder, causing death by injury and assault resulting in death.
This contrasts with laws on child abuse, which include murder and assault resulting in death and separately define ‘death resulting from child abuse,’ punishing it more severely than ordinary causing death by injury.
Because of this loophole, even if A’s conviction becomes final, he will only lose his care worker qualification for a certain period and will face no restrictions on being rehired by a long-term care facility.

When hiring staff, long-term care facilities must check whether applicants have a criminal record for elder-abuse offenses that would bar them from employment. However, causing death by injury is not listed as a related offense in police ‘criminal record check’ materials.
Nam In-soon, a Democratic Party of Korea member of the National Assembly’s welfare committee, pointed out, “There is a major loophole under current law: murder and offenses resulting in death are not included among elder-abuse-related crimes,” adding, “As things stand, we cannot even determine how many people responsible for related crimes are currently working at care facilities.”
The offenses were not included when the National Assembly’s standing committee codified elder-abuse crimes in law in 2019, and there has reportedly been no further discussion since.

[email protected] An Gaeul Reporter