The Daegu District Court handed down an eight-year sentence to the mother of a three-year-old girl found dead in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province in February, who was charged with switching babies.

The court found the 48-year-old surnamed Seok guilty of not only the switch but also of attempting to conceal the infant's dead body to cover up her crime.

The court said the crime was very serious and subject to social condemnation. 

Prosecutors believe the mother switched her own baby with that of her 22-year-old daughter at an obstetric clinic in Gumi in 2018. From there, she allegedly lived as the grandmother to her own child before a DNA test revealed the truth. The prosecution had sought a 13-year sentence.

Separately, Seok's daughter was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June on charges of abandoning the baby girl in an empty house.