The Incheon District Court on Wednesday found a former elementary school baseball coach in his 30s guilty of child abuse for pinching a student’s cheeks, sentencing him to a 3 million won ($2,000) fine and ordering him to complete a 40-hour child abuse treatment program.
"In the video evidence, the defendant is seen pulling up the victim’s cheeks for about five seconds, during which the child raised his heels," presiding Judge Kim Ji-hoo said.
"Considering how long and how forcefully the defendant pulled the child’s cheeks, as well as the child’s reaction, the court finds that the act went beyond the scope of discipline and constituted physical abuse," Kim added.
The court, however, acquitted the coach of separate allegations that ordering students to run 100 laps around the field in an hour and thirty minutes or to do 500 pushups similarly amounted to abuse.
"It is difficult to conclude that the defendant’s conduct — while inappropriate for a baseball coach — went beyond impropriety and rose to the level of emotional abuse subject to criminal punishment," the court said.
Explaining the sentence, the court said the defendant’s wrongdoing was not minor given that he inflicted physical pain on the child and the victim’s side had called for harsh punishment. It added, however, that the offense occurred in the course of coaching and training the child and other team members, making it difficult to view as premeditated.
The coach had denied all charges, claiming he was the target of malicious complaints from parents.
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