(LEAD) Busan's 'curiosity' killer gets life sentence

▲ This undated file photo, provided by the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, shows Jung Yoo-jung. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Busan murder suspect-sentence

(LEAD) Busan's 'curiosity' killer gets life sentence

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 3-5)

BUSAN, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- Jung Yoo-jung, a psychopathic murder suspect who stunned the nation in May for killing a stranger just out of curiosity about murder, was sentenced to life in prison by a district court in the southeastern city of Busan on Friday.

The Busan District Court handed down the life imprisonment sentence to Jung, dismissing her claim that she was in a state of mental and physical disorder at the time of her crime.

The court also ordered her to wear an electronic monitoring device for 30 years.

It said a severe punishment is inevitable for Jung because the victim was killed due to the defendant's distorted desires, though they had never met before.

"The crime was carefully planned and carried out and the defendant's statements have frequently changed. Thus it is difficult to accept her claim of mental and physical disorder," the court said.

The 23-year-old Jung was arrested on charges of killing a female freelance tutor, with whom she had no personal connection, with a weapon at the latter's home in Busan's Geumjeong district on May 26, dismembering the victim's body and dumping some of the body parts in a riverside bush in Yangsan, just north of Busan.

Her arrest came after police were tipped off by a taxi driver who took the suspect to Yangsan and found it strange that she dumped a bloodstained suitcase in the woods. The woman, who showed an abnormal psychopathy index in police tests, triggered social resentment after she confessed that she killed the victim just out of her curiosity about murder.

Jung, who met the victim through an app specialized in matching private tutors with students and parents, was later found to have attempted to meet two other persons via the same app.

Prosecutors demanded a death sentence for Jung in the previous hearing, while she asked the court to reduce her sentence, citing her mental and physical disorder.

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