Acquittal upheld in South Korea ‘octopus murder’ case
The Supreme Court in Seoul has upheld the acquittal of a man accused of killing his girlfriend in 2010 by feeding her live octopus
South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of a 32-year-old man sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his girlfriend, who he said choked to death after eating a live octopus.
The long-running case, fuelled by accusations of police incompetence, has received enormous media and public attention in the country.
“Indirect, circumstantial evidence is insufficient to support the charge that the accused killed the woman by suffocating her”, the court said in a statement, upholding an April ruling by an appeals court.
The man, identified only as Mr Kim, checked into a motel in Incheon City near Seoul with his girlfriend in April 2010 after buying two live octopuses from a local restaurant.
He later called reception to say his girlfriend, identified by her surname Yoon, had collapsed and stopped breathing after eating one of them. She was taken to hospital but died 16 days later. Yoon's family cremated her body, reported South Korea media.
Police initially saw the case as an accident and closed the file.
But they were forced to reopen the case five months later after a TV programme highlighted efforts by Yoon’s father to have Kim investigated, after discovering his daughter had taken out a life insurance policy just before she died.