Gaming addict confesses to smothering infant son: police

A 22-year-old Internet game addict confessed to killing his son by covering the toddler’s nose and mouth with his hands, police said Tuesday evening.

According to investigators at East Daegu Police Station, the man, surnamed Jeong, said he smothered his 28-month-old son and abandoned the body.

“I wanted to go to play (online) games but killed the boy because he didn’t go sleep,” he was quoted as saying by the police.

“I was going to go to the Internet cafe after feeding him and putting him to sleep. But I was angry because he didn’t go to sleep,” he said.

Jeong punched the boy in the stomach and other parts of his body three times before smothering him, police said.

The police said they immediately requested an arrest warrant of the man for murder.

The police were investigating Jeong for allegedly killing his infant son through neglect and disposing of the body in a plastic garbage bag.

The body of the child was found on a street corner in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, Sunday, two days after the father left it there, some 1.5 km from his apartment.

Since Jeong and his wife began living separately due to economic hardship on Feb. 24, Jeong had spent most of his time at Internet cafes playing computer games day and night, police said.

Jeong wrapped the body in a blanket and left it on the apartment’s veranda for 24 days, investigators said. As the body decayed, the father decided to throw it away for fear that people could smell it.

As his wife pressed him on the baby’s whereabouts, Jeong claimed that he had sent his son to a day care center. Later, he claimed he had lost the child while living and sleeping on the street. After the police launched an investigation into the case, he confessed to having disposed of his son’s body.


(khnews@heraldcorp.com)