Housewife gets two years’ jail for burying son’s body in kitchen floor

KUALA LUMPUR: A housewife who buried her son's body in a kitchen floor has been jailed for two years by a magistrate's court in Selayang here.

Magistrate Asyida Abd Rahim @ Ibrahim meted out the sentence against Tan Boa Jia (pix), 33, after she pleaded guilty to disposing of evidence by burying the body in the cement floor of the kitchen with the intention of protecting her husband Loo Chon Wen, 33.

Tan had earlier claimed trial to the charge but changed her plea Thursday when her case was mentioned before the magistrate.

The offence was committed at a rented house in Taman Usaha Jaya, Kepong at about 2pm on March 29 this year.

She was accused under Section 201 of the Penal Code for causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed, or giving false information touching it, to screen the offender. 

The jail sentence was to run from May 31, the day she was nabbed.

The victim's father Loo was charged with murdering Yong Shen Evan, nine, when he and Tan were charged on June 12. 

On Sept 4, the same court transferred Loo's case to the Shah Alam High Court.

Earlier, during the proceedings, Tan, who was wearing a peach colour T-shirt and purple lockup pants, burst into tears when an interpreter showed the victim's photograph for identification.

In asking for leniency, Tan's counsel Kitson Foong said that his client was the victim of circumstances and suffered abuse, physically and emotionally, for 10 years.

Foong said she was beaten almost everyday. He said Tan's husband had convinced her that she and her son were beaten due to their fault.

"She was the victim of physical and emotional abuse. She also regretted for what she had done," he said.

Foong said she has lost her second child and still has a 10-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, adding that they were now under the care of her elder brother and mother in Tawau, Sabah.

"I hope the court will give her second chance to enable her to return to her family after serving the jail sentence," he added.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharifah Zhulia Balqish Syed Agil had urged the court to mete out a deterrent sentence in view of public interest as Tan was the victim's mother.

Foong told reporters that Tan would be the prosecution’s witness in her husband's case.