KUCHING: The Magistrate’s Court here fined a factory worker RM3,000 in default nine months’ jail for concealing the birth of her foetus by flushing it down a toilet at her workplace in June.
Magistrate Mason Jaro Lenya Barayan meted out the sentence against the 31-year-old woman from Kota Samarahan after she pleading guilty to a charge framed under Section 318 of the Penal Code.
She committed the offence in the toilet of a factory in Sama Jaya at about 12.05 am on June 12.
According to the facts of the case, at around 9.55 am on June 16, a factory worker informed the police that he discovered a foetus in the factory’s excrement tank.
On June 22, at around 10.20 am, the police arrested the woman at the factory.
The results of examination and DNA analysis from the Malaysian Chemistry Department confirmed that the woman was the foetus’ mother.
It is understood that the woman did not realise that she was pregnant as she had irregular menstrual cycles and often suffered from menstrual pain.
It is also understood that during the incident, she felt a severe stomach ache and went to the toilet to defecate.
She did not realise that a foetus came out of her body while she was urinating and said she only saw a round thing mixed with blood. She thought it was menstrual blood.
Without suspecting anything, she continued to flush the toilet and later requested sick leave from her employer due to a severe stomach ache.
The woman also went to a private clinic for treatment and was then given two days off in addition to being given painkillers and blood transfusions.
Insp Merylene Lindan Andrew Mang prosecuted the case while the woman was unrepresented by a counsel.
