Woman jailed for theft freed on good behaviour

KOTA KINABALU: A woman who gave birth to her sixth child a day after she was jailed five months by a magistrate’s court for shoplifting has been freed by the High Court on a good behaviour bond.

Justice Datuk Nurchaya Arshad made the order for Noridaya Guansing, 32, to be released on good behaviour after her case came up for revision of the sentence meted out by the magistrate’s court.

Noridaya was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment and fined RM500 in default four weeks’ jail by the magistrate’s court on March 28 for possession of six shampoos.

She had told magistrate Aizat Mohamad Abdul Rahim then that the bag with the shampoos did not belong to her but was passed to her by a friend who ran off before a security guard of the shop noticed her with the bag.

Her friend had wanted to sell the shampoos, she said.

In revising the sentence of the lower court yesterday, Justice Nurchaya, among others, held that the court took cognisance that Noridaya had just delivered a baby on March 29.

Justice Nurchaya substituted the sentence with a warning under Section 173A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which was a bond of good behaviour.

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Khairuddin Idris told the court that he had studied the notes of proceedings on March 28 and noted that Noridaya did not have any previous conviction, adding that the prosecution was aware that she was pregnant at the time.

It is learnt that the baby is still warded at a hospital here due to jaundice.

The mother was taken to the Kepayan state prison after she was discharged from hospital.