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Joseph Sipalan

A Malaysian teenager was on Monday found not guilty of murdering his 16-year-old schoolmate last year, after a high court ruled that he had been of unsound mind when he attacked the victim in their school, in a case that left the country reeling in shock and horror.
The boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack last October, was arrested at his high school in Selangor state on the same morning that he had repeatedly stabbed Yap Shing Xuen in the school’s toilet.
The victim, who was a year from finishing high school, had suffered at least 180 stab wounds to her body and died from injuries to her neck and chest, according to the forensic report.
Judge Adlin Abdul Majid ruled during closed-door proceedings that the defence had successfully established a plea of insanity based on the testimony of forensic psychiatrist Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony that the boy suffered from severe schizophrenia.
The boy’s condition was left untreated for several years before the fatal attack, leaving him “incapable of knowing the nature of his act, and, independently, incapable of knowing that it was wrong or contrary to law”, his lawyer Kitson Foong said.
“The court held that, because of his illness, the child offender did not know the nature of what he was doing and did not know that it was wrong or against the law,” Foong told This Week in Asia.
Earlier, Foong reportedly said that the boy’s condition was so bad that “he thought he was God and heard voices”.
The court ordered the boy to be sent immediately to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, counselling and medication until he is assessed to no longer be a threat to society and ready for release, his lawyer said.
The boy will be detained accordingly by the Sultan of Selangor. Any decision to release him will depend on periodic medical and psychiatric reports presented to the state ruler, Foong said.

A lower court had in January ruled that that the boy was fit to stand trial and enter his defence, following a psychiatric evaluation.
His case was later transferred to the high court where he was charged with murder, an offence that carries either the death penalty or up to 40 years’ jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane.
During his arrest, police recovered two knives and a kerambit, a small curved blade traditionally used by Malay martial arts, from the boy’s bag.
A handwritten note, allegedly written by the boy, was also found at the scene. The note, which later went viral on social media, read: “This world is fake. I have already won.”
Police had initially pointed to unrequited love as among the motivations behind the grisly attack, besides “social media influence”.
The victim’s mother, Wong Lee Ping, denied the claim, arguing that her daughter “did not know the boy, had never spoken to him and was not in any relationship with him”.
“My daughter is already a victim. Please stop circulating fake stories about how she died,” Wong said, describing her daughter as a bright, disciplined and loving person.
The killing happened at a time of heightened public scrutiny of student safety and child protection measures in schools, following a string of gang rape cases and the death of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir in July last year, allegedly linked to bullying.


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The court also ordered the boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack, to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment


The court also ordered the boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack, to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.


Malaysian teen acquitted of murdering schoolmate Yap Shing Xuen

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The court also ordered the boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack, to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment

The court also ordered the boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack, to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment