Sabah quake: Four foreigners plead guilty to “obscene act” on Mt Kinabalu

Screengrab from Emil Kaminski Facebook

KOTA KINABALU: All four foreigners who allegedly stripped on Mount Kinabalu on May 30 have pleaded guilty to a charge of obscene behaviour in a public place.

However, Sessions Court judge Dean Wyane Daly stood down the case for 10 minutes when one of the accused disputed parts of the facts of the case.

Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23 shook his head when the facts were being read out, and the prosecution led by Senior Federal Counsel Jamil Ariffin later amended certain aspects of the case.

The other three, British student Eleanor Hawkins, 24, and the Canadian siblings –  Lindsey Petersen, 23,  and his sister Danielle Peterson, 22 –  remained silent.

According to the facts of the case under Section 294 (a) of the Penal Code for committing an obscene act in a public place, the two men were totally nude and the women were topless.

The court was told that while trekking up, the accused made 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.

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 not to do it.

When the judge asked if the four agreed with the facts of the case, their lawyer, Ronnie Chiam, consulted the accused and conferred with the prosecutor after certain aspects of the facts were disputed.

Jamil later revised the facts, retracting “vulgarities” that were shouted at the guide.