Zara Qairina's handwriting still at adolescent, volatile stage, court told

 

Handwriting expert Dr Linthini Gannetion (second from left) told coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that there are four stages in the development of a person's handwriting. - NSTP pic

KOTA KINABALU: The late Zara Qairina Mahathir's handwriting was still at the adolescent stage of development, the Coroner's Court was told today.

Handwriting expert Dr Linthini Gannetion, 34, told coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that there are four stages in the development of a person's handwriting.

The 74th witness said the first stage is the formation stage, when individuals are still learning how to write.

"In our adolescent stage, we will try to establish our own way of writing.

"At this point, our handwriting will be very volatile because we keep on experimenting with different types of handwriting. We will also have a tendency to copy our peers' handwriting," she said, adding that handwriting generally remains stable and does not change significantly after the late teenage years.

Another phase is the age-related degeneration stage, when the muscles begin to deteriorate.

Linthini was testifying on the 75th day of the inquest.

She was responding to lawyer Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi's questions on Zara Qairina's stage of handwriting development and why the expert could not arrive at a conclusive finding for some documents linked to the then 13-year-old that she had examined.

Luqman represents Zara Qairina's mother.

"When we are examining adolescents' handwriting, it is best to obtain the most contemporaneous documents possible.

"It is important to first study the person's handwriting and determine how volatile it is before we can assess the contemporaneous writing.

"For mature writers like us, handwriting samples from two to three years apart may still be sufficient for comparison.

"But for adolescents, even samples taken months, or perhaps weeks apart, may not suffice. This is why I have addressed the limitation.

"Since there is insufficient comparable material, an examiner should arrive at no conclusion."

Linthini testified that "contemporaneous" refers to handwriting samples that are closest in time to when the questioned handwriting was produced.

The inquest will resume tomorrow. - NST