A judo coach in Taiwan has been sentenced to nine years in prison for repeatedly throwing a seven-year-old student onto the mat, causing the boy’s death. A Taichung district court ruled on Wednesday that the coach forced the boy to follow his instructions, “ignoring the possibility that doing so could result in his death.”
The parents criticized the prison sentence as too low and announced an appeal against the sentence. “I think it’s too mild, it should be life for life,” the seven-year-old’s father told reporters. The coach also “never admitted to any wrongdoing and blamed my son”.
Trainer ignored pain
According to court documents, the trainer had the seven-year-old train with a more experienced student, even though he knew the seven-year-old was unfamiliar with the basic martial arts moves. After the boy resisted, saying the coach was “a big idiot,” the teacher demonstrated various throwing techniques on the seven-year-old.
When the boy complained of a severe headache, the trainer accused him of faking the pain and threw him down about a dozen more times. The boy vomited, but the trainer simply instructed other students to wipe up the vomit and threw the boy to the ground several more times until he collapsed completely.
According to media reports, the coach threw the boy down a total of 27 times. An uncle of the seven-year-old was therefore present during the training, but could not stop the teacher.
After the incident at the judo school, the seven-year-old was taken to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage, where he was in a coma for 70 days and also developed breathing problems. When several of the boy’s organs also failed, his parents decided at the end of June last year to end the life-sustaining measures.
