SEREMBAN: A mother will pay for deliberately abandoning her malnourished 15-year-old handicapped son in a flat full of filth.
Lolanopita Sadi was ordered yesterday to serve four months in prison and slapped with a RM10,000 fine.
In a case which shocked the nation, the mother had left her son, Muhammad Firdaus Dullah, to fend for himself in his tattered and soiled clothes in the flat in Nilai.
Sessions Court judge Kamarudin Kamsum, in passing sentencing, said Lolanopita would have to serve an additional three months in prison if she were unable to pay the fine.
Clad in a beige baju kurung and blue headscarf, the employee of a catering company was charged with deliberately neglecting Muhammad Firdaus between January and June 21 in a room of a flat in Taman Semarak in Nilai, which could have caused him physical and emotional harm.
She was charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, which calls for a fine up to RM20,000, a maximum 10-year jail term or both.
For the second charge, Lolanopita, who has since remarried and has a son from her second marriage, was accused of deliberately leaving Muhammad Firdaus without reasonable supervision in the same room at 2.30am on June 26.
For this, she was charged under Section 33(c) of the same Act, which provides a fine of up to RM5,000 or jail not exceeding two years or both upon conviction.
For the first charge, Kamarudin ordered her to serve four months in jail and pay a fine of RM6,000 while for the second, she was sentenced to three months imprisonment and ordered to pay a RM4,000 fine.
The judge ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
Kamarudin said based on the medical report, the victim who is mentally challenged and suffered from cerebral palsy, was not physically abused but had been neglected.
Based on the statement of facts, an Immigration team conducting routine checks on illegals in the area on June 21 found Muhammad Firdaus in a room in the unit. He was covered in his own faeces.
The teenager, who was unable to talk or walk due to his condition, was a pitiful sight as he could only drag himself across the filthy unit.-thestar
