Man gets 15-year prison sentence for beating father with dementia to death

A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for fatally beating his father, who had dementia, after becoming enraged because he felt his father had slighted him.

The Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court ruling sentencing the man to 15 years in prison for killing a lineal ascendant, according to legal sources Friday.

The man was indicted on charges of fatally beating his father with his fists and an electric fan multiple times at an apartment in Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, in August last year.

Investigators found that the man had been caring for his father alone, who suffered from dementia and hearing loss, and flew into a sudden rage after feeling hurt by his father's behavior.

The trial court sentenced him to 20 years in prison, saying the crime was particularly serious because “the victim was his lineal ascendant and the killing was carried out in a brutal manner.”

The appellate court reduced the sentence to 15 years.

“The defendant had undergone psychiatric treatment for severe depression for several years and appeared to have committed the crime impulsively while exhausted from the prolonged burden of caring for his elderly father,” the appellate court said.

The man appealed again, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, finding no error in the lower court's ruling.

BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]