A Seoul court has sentenced a man in his 30s to 25 years in prison for killing his wife only three months after marriage because she refused to have sex with him.
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The Seoul Southern District Court’s Criminal Division, presided over by Judge Jang Chan, delivered the sentence against the 35-year-old defendant, surnamed Seo, on charges of murder on Thursday. The prosecutors’ request for probation was dismissed.
“The defendant brutally killed the spouse who had promised to be with him for life, in a home that should have been the most peaceful place,” the court said. “The fear and pain the victim must have felt are unimaginable, and the defendant’s attempts to minimise and conceal his crime only deepened the family’s suffering.”
Seo strangled his wife while she was lying in bed at their home in Seoul’s Gangseo district on March 13. He later acted as chief mourner at her funeral before being arrested by police.
Investigators found he had repeatedly pressured his wife, who was in the early stages of pregnancy, for sex, even while she was undergoing hospital treatment following a miscarriage.
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After his wife told him in January that she wanted a divorce, he learned she had confided to friends that she regretted marrying him because of his excessive demands, which fuelled his rage.