Academy Director Suspected of Verbal Abuse and Corporal Punishment Not Indicted···Prosecution "Insufficient Evidence"

"Hard to Conclude Child Abuse Without Witness Statements"

An academy director who had been under investigation on suspicion of verbally abusing and corporally punishing academy students received a non-indictment disposition from the prosecution.

The Western Branch of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office last month made a non-indictment decision regarding academy director A, in his 50s, who had been referred on child abuse charges, judging that proving the charges was difficult.

A was suspected of emotional abuse between 2023 and 2025, such as making insulting remarks to three academy students, inflicting physical corporal punishment, and keeping them at the academy until late at night. Earlier, the parents of the victim students filed a complaint, claiming that A's verbal abuse and corporal punishment had been repeated.

However, A completely denied the charges during the investigation, to the effect that he had never made problematic remarks and had never hit the students. A's side argued that, looking at the actual evidence and recorded phone calls, it amounted to no more than checking the students' learning progress and attitude and sharing the learning situation with parents through consultations.

The prosecution ultimately accepted A's side's argument. The prosecution noted that the other academy students who had been in the classroom at the time of the incident consistently stated that they had not witnessed any verbal abuse or assault. It was also reported that the prosecution judged that the statements of the students claiming harm alone were insufficient to recognize the child abuse charges.

Attorney Choi Ji-hoon of Daeryun LLC, who represented A, said, "Based on recorded phone calls with students and parents, and academy students' statements, we specifically organized and submitted the differences between the content of the complaint and the actual situation," adding, "We actively demonstrated that the problematic remarks had also been conveyed differently from their actual context, and that some expressions could not even be confirmed as factual."

In this case, although the parents' side filed a criminal complaint claiming there had been continuous verbal abuse and corporal punishment, the prosecution judged that it was difficult to recognize the criminal charges due to reasons such as a lack of objective evidence and witness statements, concluding with a non-indictment.

Reporter Hwang Jung-won (garden@sidae.com)

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Academy Director Suspected of Verbal Abuse and Corporal Punishment Not Indicted···Prosecution "Insufficient Evidence" (Go)