Hours before their climb up sacred peak, British backpacker with fellow strippers
SURROUNDED by her fellow travellers, this is British backpacker Eleanor Hawkins before she set out to climb a sacred mountain in Malaysia.
Hours later she and ten other Western tourists stripped off for seminaked ‘selfie’ pictures on the peak – prompting angry complaints they had disrespected local culture and even caused a killer earthquake.
The 23-year-old former public school head girl and three others have been arrested, and last night her father Tim Hawkins revealed that she was going to plead guilty toa charge of obscene behav- iour in a public place
Mr Hawkins said: ‘She’s going to plead guilty and then it is up to a plea bargain from her lawyer. We have faith in the Malaysian justice system, but I have a terrible feeling they might throw the book at her, make an example of them.’
The tourists have been kept in cells for three days and warned they could be jailed for up to three months for the prank. They are not eligible for bail while the investigation continues, but could be brought before a court as early as today.
Police in the Malaysian state of Sabah, North West Borneo, are hunting for the remaining tourists who posed for the pictures.
Officers said some of the group had signed up for the Mount Kinabalu hike using false names, suggesting they had planned to strip and knew it was offensive.
Last night Nor Azlan, the Malaysian tour guide who led the group, said he tried to prevent them stripping – an act which was initiated by some of the men in the group.
‘They seldom listened to what I said. I felt they were disrespecting me as a guide’, he said. ‘I told them not to be naked on Mount Kinabalu, because it’s not appropriate.’ He added: ‘The guys started to take their clothes off, and those women start follow. The girls were not so wilful – they just changed into their underwear. After they took off their bras, they put their clothes back on. They were just halfnaked. But the guys were stubborn.’
One of the strippers told the guide to ‘go to hell’, according to local newspapers, which reported some of the group had also urinated on the mountain. Miss Hawkins had only arrived in Sabah days before the trek and her father said she had not known any of the 27- strong group when she signed up for the 13,435ft climb.
The Southampton University aeronautical engineering graduate, known as Ellie, has made a tearful apology for her ‘disrespectful’ behaviour and was said to be ‘absolutely mortified’ she had caused offence by posing topless. The former pupil of Ockbrook School, Derby, had previously undertaken voluntary work in Botswana, Southern Africa, and charity fundraising.
After the climbers’ photos went viral on social media, there was a backlash in Sabah, which intensified when a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the area days later, killing 18 people.
Mount Kinabalu is considered sacred by some ethnic groups in Sabah, and community leaders claimed t he backpackers had angered spirits on the mountain and could have caused the quake.
Daikan Anam, 32, a ranger in the Kinabalu national park and member of the Dusun community in Sabah, said he reported the group to police after seeing the pictures.
He said: ‘That’s our holy mountain. What they did showed disrespect to our mountain. I think they should pay the price for what they did.’
Miss Hawkins has been kept in a police cell with another woman arrested over the photo – Canadian Danielle Petersen, 22 – and could face a prison term in the women’s jail in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital. Also arrested were Miss Petersen’s brother Lindsey and Dutch tourist Dylan Snel, both 23.
Mr Hawkins 57, a Derby-based engineer and businessman, said he hoped his daughter might receive a fine or be ordered to carry out community work, rather than go to prison, but said: ‘I think she is preparing herself for the worst, just in case’.
He added that he hoped the Malaysian authorities did not link the ‘misdemeanour’ to the ‘unfortunate tragic events’ that occurred the following week’.
There have been calls for backpackers to face prosecution in a civil court, which could order a three-month jail sentence.
‘She’s going to plead guilty’