A son who killed his mother for scolding him for excessive Internet gaming was sentenced to 20 years in jail by a local court Friday. The prosecution had demanded a death sentence.
The 22-year-old man, identified only by his last name Oh, was arrested in February for beating his mother to death when she was sleeping at their home after being chided for his gaming habit. He then used his mother's credit card to buy a video game set and played online games at an Internet cafe, police said.
"The defendant has committed an extremely immoral crime that needs no further explanation," the court's ruling said. But the court set the
sentence in consideration of his "fragile and disoriented" state of mind, it said.
Oh had been put under medical treatment after the indictment.
In March, a local court sentenced a game-addicted couple to two years on charges of neglecting their baby who starved to death. The parents were preoccupied with raising a virtual daughter through a multiplayer role-playing game.