Mt Kinabalu ‘naked tourists’ plead guilty to indecency

Four tourists who posed naked on Mount Kinabalu pleaded guilty at the sessions court today. – – Pic courtesy of the Kinabalu Park Facebook page, June 12, 2015.

The four foreigners whose antic of stripping on Mount Kinabalu on May 30, were each sentenced to three days in jail, fined RM5,000 or in default three months jail today, after they pleaded guilty to a charge of obscene behaviour in a public place.

The Sessions Court judge Dean Wyane Daly also ordered them to be deported after paying the fine or serving the sentence.

The four: Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23; British student Eleanor Hawkins, 24; and Canadian siblings Lindsey, 23, and his sister Danielle Peterson, 22 were charged under Section 294 (a) of the Penal Code.

The judge had ordered the sentence to start from the date of their arrest which was last Tuesday.

Reproduced in court today before the end of their four-day remand order, senior federal counsel Jamil Ariffin, in laying out the facts of the case, said the two men were totally naked while the women were topless.

The court, according to The Star Online, was told that while trekking up, the four had broken local taboo by making a lot of noise and on reaching the summit at about 5.30am and after a safety briefing, they photographed themselves for about an hour.

The report also stated at about 6.45am at KM8 of the trek, they challenged each other to take off their clothes to see who could withstand the cold and ignored the mountain guides' pleas against it.

In mitigation, their legal counsel Ronnie Chiam told the court that the act of the four was due to ignorance of cultures and beliefs of the local people and ignorance that the mountain was sacred.

The report quoted him as saying the four were mindful of the hurt their actions had caused to the people of Kundasang, Sabah and Malaysia.

"As a gesture of regret and remorse they are willing to extend a public apology to the people of Sabah and Malaysia," Chiam said.

Jamil said Malaysia welcomed visitors but "we expect them to respect our laws, cultures and sensitivities."

He said the court should impose a deterrent sentence similar to the nudity case in Penang where a fine of RM5,000 was imposed.

The report also said all the accused paid at the court’s office which remained open till 7pm and they will be taken to the Kota Kinabalu airport to fly to Kuala Lumpur and to their home countries.

The four have been remanded since Wednesday after their arrest on Tuesday to facilitate investigations and police are also tracing the whereabouts of several others.

Hawkins was arrested at the Tawau airport as she tried to leave the state, while the Canadian siblings and Snel surrendered themselves to the police at a police station in Kota Kinabalu.

Photos of their naked antics went viral on social media, causing much anger in the state.

Mount Kinabalu is sacred to the KadazanDusun ethnic community in Ranau who believed it is the resting place of their ancestors.

- TMI