JOHOR BAHRU, April 29 — A 42-year-old former dental prosthetist was sentenced to 35 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane by the High Court here today for killing his girlfriend about seven years ago.

Judge Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad handed down the sentence to the accused Lim Siong Kim after finding that the defence had failed to raise any reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.

The court ordered for the accused’s prison sentence, imposed at the end of the defence case, to run from the date the accused was arrested, which was June 10, 2019.

In his judgment, the Atan Mustaffa said the accused was the last person seen with the victim, where her deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was also found in the accused’s denture workshop.

He said there was also a testimony from Lim’s friend who confirmed that he had helped the accused dispose of the box containing the victim’s body in Taman Setia Indah.

The accused himself had also guided authorities to the location where the box was dumped.

Based on the charge sheet, Lim is charged with the murder of 33-year-old Teo Kang Ling at No. 17-01, Jalan Setia Indah here at about 8am on June 3, 2019.

For the act, the accused was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Lydia Salleh, while the accused was represented by counsels G. Ravi, Aida Hassan, Datin Freda Sabapathy and S. Saravanan.

Throughout the proceeding, a total of 12 prosecution witnesses were presented, while the defence presented two witnesses during their proceedings.

Based on the prosecution’s facts, the victim’s cause of death was from drowning due to obstruction of the respiratory tract.

On June 11, 2019, it was reported that a box containing a dead female body was found by the side of a road in the Taman Setia Indah industrial area here.

The discovery later led authorities to the case involving the disappearance of the woman involved, who was last contacted on May 29, 2019.

The woman, described as the accused’s girlfriend, was said to have been killed elsewhere, before her body was placed inside the box and kept.

However, when the victim’s body started to decompose and emitted a strong stench, the accused approached his friend to help him dump the box containing his lover’s remains.

Lim was then charged at the Magistrate’s Court here, on June 23, 2019 on charges of murder before the case was transferred to the High Court here for trial.

KOTA TINGGI, April 27 — A 71-year-old farmer was charged at a Magistrates’ Court here for the fatal shooting involving two men and a woman at a restaurant last week.

The accused Lim Lian nodded his head after the charges were read out by an interpreter in Mandarin before Magistrate Nurkhalida Farhana Abu Bakar.

No plea was recorded as murder cases fall under the High Court’s jurisdiction.

According to the charge sheet, Lim is accused of shooting dead two men, identified as Wong Poh Soon, 61, and Chen Kwai Hwa, 64, together with a Vietnamese woman, Tran Thi Trang, 37, at a restaurant at Jalan Delima in Taman Kota Jaya here at about 1.30pm on April 19.

He was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. 

The offence is punishable by the death penalty or 30 to 40 years in prison and a minimum 12 strokes of the cane.

The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Eizlan Azhar, while counsel Belinda Low represented the accused.

No bail was offered as murder is a non-bailable offence.

The court fixed May 13 for mention, pending the transfer of the case to the High Court.

It was reported on April 19 that three people were killed in a shooting outside a food outlet in Kota Jaya here.

The suspect, identified as a local, had allegedly shot the victims using a Benelli shotgun at 1.40pm. 

He was later arrested about 200m from the scene of incident and was later remanded for seven days before being charged. 

Police later confirmed that the suspect had a valid firearms license for the shotgun based on his agricultural needs.

Police believe that the incident was due to a RM50,000 debt owed to the suspect.