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The Shah Alam High Court today acquitted a 15-year-old boy of murder after accepting expert evidence that he was legally insane when he fatally stabbed his schoolmate last year. Judge Adlin Abdul Majid ordered the teenager to be detained at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta in Perak at the pleasure of the Sultan of Selangor for treatment counselling and medication until doctors determine he no longer presents a danger to society. Defence counsel Kitson Foong told reporters that the court had found the requirements of Section 84 of the Penal Code were met while the prosecution failed to rebut the psychiatric assessment.
The boy whose identity is protected under the Child Act 2001 faced a charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code carrying the death penalty or 30 to 40 years imprisonment with caning for the killing of 16-year-old Yap Shing Xuen. Proceedings took place behind closed doors at the national secondary school in Bandar Utama Petaling Jaya where the attack occurred in a female students’ toilet between 9:20am and 9:35am on October 14 2025. The prosecution called 11 witnesses during the trial while the defence presented two including the accused teenager and the forensic psychiatrist.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony from Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta testified that the boy’s severe aggressive schizophrenia began at age nine and remained untreated for five years after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to care. The specialist who examined the teenager within days of the incident reported that he had lost his sense of self believed he was a god and acted on voices issuing instructions at the time of the stabbing. The High Court accepted this evidence which the prosecution did not dispute establishing both medical and legal insanity under Malaysian law.
Foong said the judge cautioned the boy about the seriousness of the act he had committed reminding him never to take a second chance at freedom for granted and to remember the life taken. The lawyer added that schizophrenia requires lifelong medication and that symptoms would return without consistent treatment and counselling. Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad reported in 2025 that public hospitals recorded a 14.6 percent rise in schizophrenia patients between 2021 and 2024 reaching more than 8,300 cases last year.
A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports by the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia and UNICEF Malaysia found that nearly half of Malaysians aged 15 to 30 exhibit symptoms of depression anxiety or stress with females and those having pre-existing medical conditions at elevated risk. International reviews of youth mental health data have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic amplified pre-existing upward trends in such disorders across multiple countries including those in the region. The boy’s untreated condition since the pandemic aligns with broader patterns of disrupted care that experts have linked to worsened outcomes among adolescents.
A separate High Court ruling three days earlier on September 11 acquitted a 55-year-old woman of murder after determining she too suffered from schizophrenia during a violent episode authorities described as a botched exorcism. Federal Court guidance issued in 2024 has clarified that the insanity defence requires proof of both a qualifying mental disorder and the consequent loss of reasoning that prevents understanding the nature or wrongfulness of the act. Legal experts have stated that while the defence carries the burden of proof under the Evidence Act successful cases result in court-ordered psychiatric detention rather than punitive sentences.
