RM10,000 for leaving boy home alone

Day in court: Shamsinar arriving at the Sessions Court in Kuala Pilah.

KUALA PILAH: Felda settler Ambia Timon has never been to the Sessions Court where his daughter was charged with leaving a three-year-old boy alone and unsupervised in a house.

As he sat in the crowded public gallery, the 59-year-old man must have felt out of place.

“Do you think she will be sent to jail? For how long?” he was heard whispering to a reporter beside him as the charge was read to his daughter, Shamsinar Ambia.

The 37-year-old woman, the eldest of seven siblings, then nodded her head to plead guilty.

She was fined RM10,000 by judge Nariman Badruddin in default a year’s jail and ordered to do 240 hours of community service.

Charged under Section 33(1)(c) of the Child Act, she faced a jail term of up to five years or a fine of up to RM20,000, or both, and community service.

Shamsinar committed the offence at her rented house in Kampung Parit Buluh, near Gemencheh, at about 7pm on Jan 5.

Policemen and some villagers barged in to find the boy naked and in the dark after someone reported hearing his cries.

It was revealed later that Shamsinar’s two sons were with the boy but had run out to hide when they thought robbers were breaking into the house.

The boy is reportedly the son of a friend and Shamsinar was looking after him.

Ambia, who lives in Felda Jelai, said he was not rich but would raise the cash to pay her fine.

“I brought some money with me but it's not enough. I have arranged for the remaining sum to be sent to me and will take my daughter home with me today because she has suffered enough,” he said, adding that his other children were married and lived elsewhere.

“It is fate that we have to be in court today.

“Shamsinar is a good daughter. She quit school to take care of my mentally ill wife when she was in Form 3,” said Ambia.

His wife has been sick for more than 20 years.

He paid the fine later in the day.

A Welfare Department official, who was in court, said they had interviewed a woman who claimed to be the boy's biological mother.

“Until this is sorted out, we will take care of him,” he said, adding that the boy was still in hospital.