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By RHODRI PHILLIPS
Published: 04 Mar 2010
A COUPLE addicted to computer games let their real life baby starve to
death
while raising a virtual daughter online, cops said today.
The couple spent up to12 hours a day at internet cafes leaving their
three-month-old daughter home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South
Korea.
Cops say the couple had become obsessed with living online and neglected
their
real lives.
They raised an avatar baby through their profiles on a Second Life-style
game
called PRIUS, while their real daughter was given just one bottle of
milk a
day.
Suspicious
Dad Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and mum Choi Mi-sun, 25, called the emergency
services
when they returned from one online session and found their daughter
dead.
They told police: "We found she had passed away when we woke up in the
morning."
But cops became suspicious about how severely dehydrated the tot was.
A spokesman for the National Scientific Criminal and Investigation
Laboratory,
which carried out an autopsy on the girl, said: "She appears to have
starved to death because she was not fed for such a long period of
time."
The girl was initially well cared for by her grandmother — but her
health deteriorated after she moved back in with her parents.
She tragically died in September last year.
Cops tried to arrest the parents, but they disappeared after the baby's
funeral.
They caught up with them on Tuesday and they have since been charged
with
child abuse and neglect.
The parents told cops after their arrest: "Due to our sense of guilt, we
have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months."
It is thought the couple met in 2008 on an internet chat site.
Online games are massively popular in South Korea.
A 28-year-old man dropped dead recently after playing his favourite game
Starcraft for 50 hours non-stop without eating and drinking.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2878357/Gamers-tot-dies-of-starvation.html#ixzz0hW1BNRq8
Published: 04 Mar 2010
A COUPLE addicted to computer games let their real life baby starve to
death
while raising a virtual daughter online, cops said today.
The couple spent up to12 hours a day at internet cafes leaving their
three-month-old daughter home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South
Korea.
Cops say the couple had become obsessed with living online and neglected
their
real lives.
They raised an avatar baby through their profiles on a Second Life-style
game
called PRIUS, while their real daughter was given just one bottle of
milk a
day.
Suspicious
Dad Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and mum Choi Mi-sun, 25, called the emergency
services
when they returned from one online session and found their daughter
dead.
They told police: "We found she had passed away when we woke up in the
morning."
But cops became suspicious about how severely dehydrated the tot was.
A spokesman for the National Scientific Criminal and Investigation
Laboratory,
which carried out an autopsy on the girl, said: "She appears to have
starved to death because she was not fed for such a long period of
time."
The girl was initially well cared for by her grandmother — but her
health deteriorated after she moved back in with her parents.
She tragically died in September last year.
Cops tried to arrest the parents, but they disappeared after the baby's
funeral.
They caught up with them on Tuesday and they have since been charged
with
child abuse and neglect.
The parents told cops after their arrest: "Due to our sense of guilt, we
have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months."
It is thought the couple met in 2008 on an internet chat site.
Online games are massively popular in South Korea.
A 28-year-old man dropped dead recently after playing his favourite game
Starcraft for 50 hours non-stop without eating and drinking.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2878357/Gamers-tot-dies-of-starvation.html#ixzz0hW1BNRq8
