Window can be opened from outside – Witness

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SEREMBAN – The inquest to investigate the cause of death of Irish-French teenager Nora Anne Quoirin at the Coroner’s Court here was told that a window in the teenager’s villa could be opened from the outside due to a faulty latch.

The matter was informed by the second witness Haanim Ahmed Bamadhaj who is the manager of The Dusun Resort in Aug 24’s proceedings before of Coroner Maimoonah Aid.

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“Even a child can open the latch and the front door,” she said in response to Coroner’s Maimoonah question whether the window was light or otherwise and whether it could be opened by children.

In the proceedings, when asked by lawyer S. Sakthyvell who is representing Nora Anne’s family whether there was a complaint regarding the faulty latch before the disappearance of the girl, she replied that to the best of her knowledge, there was none.

Haanim, who is in Berlin now testified via teleconference, also explained that the villa where the family stayed had an open concept, but the windows had to be kept opened for ventilation as well to ensure that the temperature inside was not hot.

Negeri Sembilan police chief Datuk Mohamad Mat Yusop who was the first witness told the inquest that his observation on the window in the room found that the latch was faulty.

“Nilai district police chief Supt Mohd Nor Marzukee Besar informed me that the missing person came out of the window and therefore, I went to the window to inspect it,” he said.

Mohamad said this in response to a question from the deputy public prosecutor who is also the inquest coordinating officer, Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad on how he knew about the window.

During the proceedings, the court was physically shown the window as well as a picture of its location in the villa.

“I am confident the window shown in this court is the window I saw.

“I am not sure if the handle was damaged (either) due to the investigation process carried out or before that,” said Mohamad.

At the proceedings, Muhamad Iskandar led the team of deputy public prosecutors namely Nuralis Mat, Nurhafizah Haron and Nur’atiqah Sapari while Sakthyvell led a team of lawyers for the family with Louise Azmi and Lydia Ng as well as The Dusun Resort represented by Alliff Benjamin Suhaimi and Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar

The two-week inquest started today until Aug 28 and will resume on Sept 1 to 4 with a total of 64 witnesses expected to testify to assist in the investigation.

Nora Anne, 15, went missing on Aug 4, a day after she and her family arrived in Malaysia for a two-week holiday at a resort in Pantai here, about 60 km south of the capital.

Nora Anne’s body was found on Aug 13 last year near a stream in a ravine about 2.5 km from the resort following a large-scale search.

Initial post-mortem reports stated that the death of Nora Anne, a special needs person, did not have any criminal elements and the teenager was confirmed dead due to gastrointestinal bleeding, resulting from prolonged stress and hunger.

The inquest proceedings resumes at 9 am today.

— BERNAMA

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