A welfare facility owner has been referred to the prosecution for indictment on suspicion of embezzlement and violence, the National Human Rights Commission reported Thursday.
The commission said that the owner has received donations from his tour preaches with the four mentally challenged children put on his family register. He also embezzled 1.7 million won he received from the authorities concerned, including allowances for the four children.
He built a cottage for the children in the remote mountain and locked the iron gate set up at the entrance. He also tattooed the name and phone numbers of one disabled child who once deserted the cottage.
In the investigation, commission officials found face, arms and legs of the victim bruised and heard that he was beaten by the owner.
The owner has adopted and put a total of 21 children on his family register, including six heavily disabled ones put on his family register for the first time in 1978, and has made him known as the “Angel Dad” on TV.
Two of them died about 10 years ago but have still been laid in a hospital mortuary, showing sign of abuse, and 15 others have been sent to other welfare centers but their whereabouts are not clear, according to the commission. Three others were overlapped in their birthday registration, indicating that the owner seemed to increase the number.
The commission launched the investigation last July upon request by the Ministry of Health and Welfare which got to know the irregularities of the owner in a program aired by a TV network.