Murder charge against teenage girl can still be reviewed - AGC

KUALA LUMPUR: The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) can still examine and review the murder charge against a teenage girl who allegedly stabbed her newborn baby to death, to other charges.

The AGC said in a statement today that it was after taking into account additional developments, including the results of the investigation into the rape incident involving the girl aged 14 years and 11 months old.

It said the teenager would be tried through a court process in accordance with the Child Act 2001 (Act 611) as the accused is a child as defined under the Act and if convicted, the child will be ordered to be detained under Section 97(2).

The AGC said the charge against the teenager was a transparent criminal justice process without the influence of any inducement and was based on statements.

"Information on the rape incident was only known after the teenager was arrested, where a police report was lodged by her on Feb 8. Following the report, an investigation paper was opened and investigations are still ongoing," it said.

The AGC said the investigation paper was in relation to a police report lodged on Feb 8 by a medical officer who on the same day at 9 am, while on duty at the Seri Bandi Health Clinic, Kemaman, Terengganu, received an information about a childbirth at home.

"At about 9.10 am, the complainant and a team went to the location and saw a woman holding a baby near the kitchen sink. The complainant also found that the baby's umbilical cord had been cut using a sharp object.

"After scrutinising the results of the investigation submitted, the state prosecutions director's office gave permission for charges against the teenager aged 14 years 11 months old under Section 302 of the Penal Code related to the death of the baby," the statement read.

It said the charge was made based on the testimonies of witnesses and documentation as well as the testimonies of forensics officers and the confirmation of a pathologist that the dead baby was between 38 and 40 weeks old, weighing 2.49 kg at birth with the umbilical cord cut by a sharp object and there were other injuries including one stab wound to the baby's body.

On Feb 15, the teenage girl was charged at the Kemamam Magistrate's Court with killing her newborn baby boy at a house in Seri Bandi, between 7 am and 9 am, on Feb 8 under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

-- BERNAMA