Psychiatric evaluation requested for female suspect in 'kitchen floor' murder

The boy found buried under the kitchen floor.

GOMBAK: The woman being investigated with her husband over the alleged murder and burial of their child under the kitchen floor of their Kepong home, claims she is also a victim in the whole incident.

Her lawyers, who represented the 32-year-old woman at the Selayang magistrate's court Saturday, has requested for a psychiatric evaluation to prove their client was suffering from “battered wife syndrome”.

The housewife and her 33-year-old moneylender husband had their remand extended until June 13 for the murder investigation. They are expected to be charged in court next week.

Kitson Foong, representing the woman, said he intended to prove that while she may have been involved in the gruesome tragedy, she was not a willing participant.

“We have requested that my client be sent to Hospital Bahagia for a psychiatric examination, specifically for battered wife syndrome.

“We believe she is suffering from this syndrome, so much so that on that day in question, it was not her fault. She was just following.

“In that situation, she was as much a victim,” Foong told reporters outside the court complex.

Battered wife syndrome, according to the Canadian Medical Journal, is a condition where a woman who is under physical or psychological abuse from her spouse will choose to remain with him because she fears him.

It said treatment is only possible when the woman leaves her husband.

Foong added that the couple’s 14-year-old daughter may take the stand during the upcoming trial to testify.

There is also a possibility of the younger children testifying, under the Evidence of Child Witness Act 2007.

He added that the woman “worried about her children” who she had to leave in Penampang when policemen came after her last Sunday.

“She is sad because she has lost a child but also relieved that she can finally express what truly happened, and people will finally hear her pleas and cries for help,” Foong claimed.

Meanwhile, the lawyers for the male suspect had requested that the man be sent to a hospital to have his foot looked at, for an injury he suffered during a “fight” in 2014.

The couple arrived in separate vehicles and 15 minutes apart at the court complex, Saturday. Both shunned reporters and cameras as they were escorted in with handcuffs.