It was 1 a.m. on August 1, 2025, and a 50-year-old man was drinking alone at a café on Ganghwa Island, in Incheon, South Korea. He fell asleep.
According to the court, his son-in-law came in and tied him up with rope and industrial tape. Then his 58-year-old wife arrived, suspecting he was being unfaithful to her. The family had hired a private detective to follow him. She stabbed him about 50 times and cut off his genitals, which she threw into the café’s toilet. That part could never be reattached.
The man survived surgery, but was left with lasting physical and psychological effects. In the first trial, the woman was acquitted of attempted murder and convicted of aggravated assault causing serious injury: seven years in prison. Her defense denied that she had wanted to kill him. On May 12, 2026, the appeals court upheld the sentence, although the prosecution had sought a harsher one.
According to a secondary media outlet, the husband asked for leniency for her before sentencing. The infidelity, however, was never confirmed by the court: it was only her suspicion.