A CCTV footage exhibits a caregiver placing a baby’s head at a house in Incheon’s Search engine marketing-gu on Dec. 31. Courtesy of the kid’s mom.
A girl dispatched via a government-operated childcare service has been accused of assaulting a toddler beneath her care. Police are investigating the allegations.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Company stated Monday that it obtained a baby abuse report involving A, a caregiver employed by the Incheon Search engine marketing-gu Childcare Assist Heart.
In accordance with the informant, recognized as B, A was a caregiver dispatched via a childcare service run by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Household. Since March final yr, A had cared for B’s twin youngsters, born in 2022, for eight hours on weekdays.
The childcare service affords in-home care for youngsters beneath 12 years outdated in households dealing with caregiving gaps because of dual-income mother and father. B utilized for the „Toddler All-Day Care Service,“ which targets infants beneath 36 months.
Whereas utilizing the service, B grew to become dissatisfied, alleging that A engaged in unrelated housekeeping duties and interfered in parenting issues as a substitute of specializing in childcare. B requested a alternative caregiver from the native childcare heart, however the heart cited a staffing scarcity as the rationale for denying the request. Left with no different possibility, B continued utilizing A’s companies till Dec. 2024.
Late final month, the middle knowledgeable B that A can be unable to work briefly because of private circumstances, and a substitute caregiver would go to as a substitute. As B, who’s pregnant, deliberate to be out of the home for well being checkups throughout this era, she put in a closed-circuit tv (CCTV) digital camera in her house on Jan. 6.
Upon reviewing the CCTV footage, B found stunning scenes. The footage confirmed A placing one of many toddlers‘ toes a number of instances with a again scratcher.
Alarmed, B reviewed earlier footage, which revealed further cases of abuse, together with A hitting the kid’s head, shoving the kid, yelling, and performing aggressively.
B reported these incidents to the childcare heart on Jan. 8 and subsequently filed a police report accusing A of kid abuse.
A caregiver makes use of a again scratcher to strike a baby’s foot at a house in Incheon on Jan. 3. Courtesy of the kid’s mom
The childcare heart convened a mediation committee the day after the report was filed and instantly prohibited A from additional actions.
B stated that A later referred to as to confront her, asking, „Why did you report me?“ A defended her actions, saying, „I disciplined the kid as a result of the mom didn’t“ and „I solely hit evenly as a result of I assumed the kid was cute.“
The variety of government-dispatched caregivers has steadily elevated since 2020, reaching 28,663 in 2024. In accordance with statistics from the Ministry of Well being and Welfare, circumstances of abuse involving these caregivers have averaged over 30 incidents yearly from 2020 to final yr.
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Instances.
