MALAYSIA. MAN WHO KILLED GIRLFRIEND'S DAUGHTER ESCAPES GALLOWS ON APPEAL

M. Thirunyanam, a coconut seller convicted of murder, escaped the mandatory death sentence when the Court of Appeal in Malaysia reduced the conviction to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to the maximum jail term of 20 years for the lesser offence. Thirunyanam had been convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court on August 1, 2002 after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter, R. Parameswari, behind a house in Taiping on October 29, 1999. Counsel Rusli Zain who represented Thirunyanam said his client did not intend to kill the girl. He said Thirunyanam used a small stick to hit the girl on the head out of rage after she uttered harsh words to him. According to the facts of the case, Thirunyanam, who had two previous convictions for stealing and causing injury to another using a dangerous weapon, hit the girl with a stick causing her to pass out. He then carried the girl and threw her into the septic tank of a vacant house adjacent to her mother's. The incident was witnessed by the girl's mother, V. Rajamah, 37. The next day, Thirunyanam and Rajamah went to Penang and were arrested on November 15, 1999 after the police found the girl's decomposed body in the septic tank.