A Malaysian High Court on Friday sentenced a 26-year-old contract labourer, Muidin Maidin to death for the assault and brutal murder of a 4-year-old girl called Dirang on 1 March 2012.
While giving out the judgment, High Court Judge Datuk Abdul Halim Aman credited the forensics for helping crack the year-long case.
The investigation had found that Maidin had brutally killed the minor before burning her in a hole of an abandoned housing site to destroy the evidence of the crime.
Terming the accused as inhuman and a threat to the society, the judge stated that all evidences pointed against the accused who had cliamed the criminal charge as a conspiracy.
"Your DNA was found inside the child which meant that there must have been some form of activity, and she must have resisted which explained the signs of pressure on her jaw apparently from your hand trying to stop her screams. After she had lost consciousness from the suffocation, you burnt her body to conceal the evidence. There is no punishment other than the mandatory death penalty for this heinous crime," New Straits Times (NST) quoted Justice Aman as saying to the culprit while reading out the judgement.
Besides the DNA evidence, Maidin's sarong was found in the charred remains of the body and the soil on his motorbike's tires matched with that of the housing site where the act was committed.
The enraged judge further asked the culprit, who appeared calm till the sentence was proclaimed, "Or are you devoid of feeling? You are the most cruel of murderers."
The judge went on to target the clumsy and careless attitude of the minor's parents who let her go alone to the grocery shop early morning.
"It was early in the morning and both the mother and stepfather were in, yet they allowed the child to go out on her own."
The judge, who had visited the area where the victim lived, criticised the locals' indifference attitude towards the act.
"I refuse to believe no one saw or heard the victim screaming, struggling, crying and shouting for help as she was dragged away forcefully during the incident which occurred between 11.30am on 1 March last year and midnight the following day."
"Maybe people just do not want to get involved, are scared to get involved or just do not care."
As the sentence was given, Maidin broke down and started yelling and even kicked media personnel while being taken into custody.
Meanwhile, after the much-awaited sentence, Roselyn Alan, the victim's mother broke down.
"I feel so relieved that the man responsible has finally been punished with a befitting sentence," she told The Star Online.
The victim's mother, step-father and grandfather were present at the court room. However, Dirang's biological father Handry Yangot was absent from the scene.
Other than the forensic evidence, a faulty alibi and an eye-witness, who had seen Maidin around the crime scene, aided the judgement.
