Man escapes gallows for murdering stepson, gets 35 years in jail

 

A former contractor escaped the death sentence when the Court of Appeal today commuted his sentence to 35 years in prison for the murder of his three-year-old stepson almost six years ago.

Khairul Izani Khairuddin, 36, known as “Boy Tiger”, will also receive 12 strokes of the cane.

He was ordered to serve the prison sentence from the date of his arrest on Nov 12, 2018.

A three-judge panel comprising judges Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera (now a Federal Court judge), Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, and Azmi Ariffin dismissed Khairul’s appeal to set aside the conviction for murdering Muhammad Qairil Aqmal Abdul Hakim.

However, the panel allowed Khairul’s appeal to set aside the death sentence and replace it with a prison sentence.

On Aug 26, 2022, the Klang High Court found Khairul guilty of killing the child and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The offence was committed in a house at Jalan Bukit Indah 5, Taman Bukit Indah, Ampang, Selangor at 11am on Nov 8, 2018.

Accused not insane

Zaidi, when delivering the court’s decision, said Khairul failed to show that the High Court judge had erred in his finding when dismissing the accused’s defence of mental insanity.

On the contrary, he said, there was evidence proving that Khairul was sane during the incident as testified by his wife that her husband stopped beating the child after seeing the boy’s head bleeding. He then immediately took the deceased to a clinic for treatment.

Zaidi said the act of Khairul lying to the doctor that the boy was injured due to a fall in the bathroom was consistent with the behaviour of a sane person.

“We found that the trial judge cannot be said to be wrong in his finding that the accused’s actions in beating the deceased happened because of his hot temper and not because he was mentally unsound,” he said.

He said based on the facts of the case, Khairul’s wife saw her husband beating the child repeatedly, stepping on him, strangling his neck, and banging his head against the wall until the boy’s head bled.

The woman did not succeed in stopping her husband from beating the child because she was heavily pregnant and also because Khairul was a hot-tempered person, he said.

Lawyer Arik Zakri Abdul Kadir represented Khairul while deputy public prosecutor Ng Siew Wee appeared for the prosecution.

- Bernama