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Case Brief
Case Brief
Citation
Identification of Parties
Legal Issues
Dewi Nadia Alias, the appellant appeal against her conviction and sentence for the
offence of the murder of her stepdaughter under s302 of the penal code. The appellant
was found guilty by the high court as the appellant was the only adult during the
material time and her versions of the events was contradicted with the story of SP11
and SP8.The result of the post-mortem was blunt force trauma which the same with
the sign of child abuse and it was the cause of the death of the deceased. The appellant
found that the Judicial commission had failed to fairly appreciate her defence as the
result of the post-mortem stated that the injury was about 12-24 hours from the time
of the death which anyone could get access to her stepdaughter including her husband.
The appellant also contended that the JC had failed to consider the evidence which
was favourable to her and that JC had misdirected himself as to the admissibility of
the evidence of the child witness, SP 13. Therefore, the main issues to be considered
were whether the JC was correct in convicting the appellant for murder based on the
Procedural History
- 9th January 2011 : Nur Dania Qistina was found death between 6.00 a.m. until 9.00
a.m.
- 11th January 2011 : The report has been lodged by the authority about the death of
- 22nd January 2011 : Norafizan Ludin and Dewi Nadia Alias as charged by the
- 20th November 2012 : Judge of the High Court in Johor Bharu dismissed the charges
for Norafizan Ludin but keep preserved the charges for Dewi Nadia Alias
- 18th July 2013 : Dewi Nadia Alias was convicted of the murder under Section 302 of
the Penal Code by the judge of High Court of Malaya in Johor Bharu
- 10th March 2015 : Judicial Commissioner dismissed the appeal by the Appellant
(Dewi Nadia Alias) in the Court of Appeal and uphold the conviction under Section
The appellant was thus convicted for murder and sentenced to death
Ratio Decidendi
- The post mortem on the deceased’s body was carried by SP5. From the post
morterm, SP5. From the post mortem, SP5 stated that there’s no injuries were
caused by force blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen. The JC found that it
was the appellant who have inflicted the injuries as she was the only adult with
the deceased and the two other children when the victim met death. The
majority found that the JC had failed to consider and appreciate the evidence
- SP5 also stated that the injuries sustained by the deceased were between 15 to
24 hours prior to her death. During that period of time, there must be a
possibility that there was any other adult who had access to the deceased and
inflicted the injuries on the deceased. JC failed to consider that the appellant’s
husband (SP12) also can be the one who had access to the deceased between
15 and 24 hours before the deceased met death. Moreover, there was no
evidence from SP8 or SP11 that they heard the deceased crying during the
incident to prove that the appellant is the person who had inflicted injuries.
- The statement and explanation from the appellant to SP8 and SP11 is different
context, that the appellant panicked and she was not in the right frame of mind.
fell in the bathroom corroborated with testimony from SP13 and evidence
from SP12.
taking the oath and speaking the truth. In fact, SP13 did not understand about
what is oath and speak honestly but her intelligent was sufficient. So, there
was no reason for the court to rejecting the unsworn evidence from SP13.
- The evidences to prove the appellant who caused the deceased’s death were
- If the evidence from every testimony is taken, it was strong enough to prove
that the appellant is the person who inflicted those fatal injuries and caused the
deceased’s death. It is undeniable that SP13 did not understand the nature of
an oath, but her intelligent was sufficient enough to make her evidence be
accepted by the court because she has a full of understanding on what she’s
talking about. After a careful and meticulous assessment of the entire evidence,
the JC found that the injuries on the deceased was done intentionally. Thus,
The significance of this case (Dewi Nadia Alias v PP) in the Court of Appeal can be
shown by the decision of Judicial Commissioner to change and rely upon the evidence
of the case from using the witnesses of SP13 changed to the results of post-mortem by
SP5 (The Pathologist). The reason the Judicial Commissioner unanimously agreed to
change the basis of this cases’ evidence because the Counsel argued that there is
irreconcilable between the evidence of SP13 and SP5. The short answer to this
argument by the Counsel just that the strength of SP5’s evidence more credible and
rational rather than using SP13’s evidence. There also have the disagreement between
Counsel and Public Prosecutor towards the SP13’ evidence under The Evidence Act
Section 133A that the counsel classified that SP13 is not sufficient intelligence to
justify the reception of the evidence. In addition, this case also which under the Court
of Appeal changed the precedent in the previous court, High Court that genuinely
using SP13’s evidence as the basis of their decision to convict the Appellant under
Section 302 of the Penal Code rather than using post-mortem results by the
Pathologist.
One of the application of law which under this case that can be identified is about
Section 133A of the Evidence Act 1950. The main issue on this section which that
whether the JC was correct in convicting the appellant for murder based on the
SP13 was admissible. This issues came from the argument that have been made by the
Counsel which him stated the evidence of SP13 is irreconcilable with the evidence of
the pathologist (SP5) that the deceased’s death was not due to drowning. The counsel
questioned why in the first place the persecution called SP13 to be as their evidence
while if the the cause of the death was not due to drowning. The counsel used the
Section 133A of the Evidence Act to justify that the SP13 not eligible to be a witness
because in this act stated that ‘that where a child witness does not understand the
nature of an oath, his evidence can still be admitted if the trial court is satisfied that he
issue is the counsel complaint that the preconditions for admission of such evidence
under section 133A of the Evidence Act was never met in that the learned JC failed to
enquire whether the child possessed sufficient intelligence to justify reception of her
evidence.
The outcomes for this case based on the applying of law under Section 133A of the
Evidence Act 1950 has made the judges in the Court of Appeal to change their basis
of evidence from using the evidence of SP13 to the evidence of SP5 that more
credible and rational. But, the Appellant cannot change her conviction under Section
302 of the Penal Code because the evidence of this case and reasoning by the judges
proved that the Appellant did something that leads to the murder action which is the
Conclusion
In brief, the decision by the court of appeal to convict Dewi Nadia Alias under s302
of penal code was not wrong as the appellant was failed to convince and shows her
evidence that she was not guilty. Her story was contradicted with the testimony by
SP11 and SP8. Besides, the result of the post-mortem were blunt force trauma which
is consistent with child abuse symptoms and Dewi was the only adult during that time
as her husband was working. Although, she claimed that her husband has a bad
temper that she saw her husband hit the girls( his daughter) but the impact should not
be 77 bruise all over the deceased’s body. This shows that Dewi is the one who was
abusing the child as she was the one who happens to at home at all time. Moreover,
Dewi also could not denied that her husband loves his children especially the
deceased. Hence, there would be no way for the husband to abuse the deceased which
caused the death of his daughter. The appellant was thus convicted for the murder of