Malaysian teenager acquitted of killing schoolmate

A Malaysian teenager was on Monday found not guilty of murdering his 16-year-old schoolmate last year, after a high court ruled that he had been of unsound mind when he attacked the victim in their school, in a case that left the country reeling in shock and horror.

The boy, who was 15 at the time of the attack last October, was arrested at his high school in Selangor state on the same morning that he had repeatedly stabbed Yap Shing Xuen in the school’s toilet.

The victim, who was a year from finishing high school, had suffered at least 180 stab wounds to her body and died from injuries to her neck and chest, according to the forensic report.

Judge Adlin Abdul Majid ruled during closed-door proceedings that the defence had successfully established a plea of insanity based on the testimony of forensic psychiatrist Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony that the boy suffered from severe schizophrenia.