A 29-year-old man was arrested after police discovered suspected drugs, a vaporiser, and several offensive weapons inside a van in Yishun on Aug. 13.

According to a report by Shin Min Daily News, the incident took place at about 5:05am along Yishun Street 31, outside the multi-storey car park at Block 333.

Van rented through a rental platform

A resident, Lin, told Shin Min that he noticed several police vehicles and a van parked by the roadside when he looked out of his window at around 7am that day.

He added that he saw officers unloading items from the van and placing them on nearby bushes, where they appeared to be documenting evidence.

"I saw them searching, but I live on a higher floor, so it was hard to see clearly," he said.

When Shin Min reporters arrived at the scene, the van remained parked on the side of the road, beside a construction site.

As the incident took place on a two-way road, construction workers were seen directing traffic.

The van was also reportedly rented through the van rental platform LoadUp.

At least four police vehicles and a Crime Scene Investigation vehicle were present.

Residents interviewed by Shin Min said that while they noticed the heavy police presence, they did not see the van driver.

Police found suspected drugs, vape and weapons

In response to Mothership's queries, the police confirmed receiving a call for assistance at the aforementioned location.

Upon arrival, officers checked and woke up a man who was sleeping in the driver's seat of a van.

The 29-year-old man was subsequently found in possession of suspected drugs, one vaporiser, and an assortment of weapons including knuckledusters and karambits.

He was later arrested for possession of offensive weapons, driving while under the influence of drugs, as well as suspected drug-related and vaporiser-related offences.

The suspected drug-related offences have been referred to the Central Narcotics Bureau, and the vaporiser-related offences have been referred to the Health Sciences Authority.

Investigations are ongoing.

Investigation allegedly lasted over four hours

According to Shin Min, police remained at the scene for more than four hours and also deployed police dogs during the investigation.

At around 9am, three police cars and the Crime Scene Investigation vehicle had left, leaving one police car and two officers behind.

A tow truck arrived at around 9:20am and towed the van away.

Lin said he saw police dogs around the van at about 8am, and believed they were searching for drug-related evidence.

The van also appeared to have sustained a dent on its right side, as well as black scratches on the driver's door, which reportedly could not be closed properly.

When contacted by Shin Min, LoadUp said it was unable to comment as the case remains under police investigation.

With the arrest and extradition of former lawyer Lim Tean, there has been much talk about his decision to evade jail by escaping to Johor.

His escape was short-lived, but what about other people who have absconded from Singaporean justice? Here are four other prominent names who have fled, or tried to flee, Singapore to evade the law.

Mas Selamat Kastari

Of all the people who have absconded from Singaporean law, none has made as large an impact as Mas Selamat Kastari.

Mas Selamat was the former head of Jemaah Islamiyah's Singapore branch who famously escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in February 2008.

A suspected terrorist, he had been detained for nearly two years since 2006, when he was deported from Indonesia to Singapore, where he was detained without trial under the Internal Security Act.

He took advantage of a family visit day, when he was allowed to change into civilian clothes.

Asking for privacy, he went into a toilet stall, was allowed to close the door behind him and be totally obscured from sight.

There he let a tap run, while he escaped through a grille-less window, climbed down a drainpipe, and slipped through a weak point in the centre’s fencing.

He evaded police for four days despite an extensive manhunt, and managed to swim across the Strait of Johor undetected.

Once in Johor, he managed to evade police for over a year before he was arrested in a small hamlet located just outside Johor Bahru.

He was eventually found after the Royal Malaysia Police detained three former JI members, who revealed Mas Selamat’s location under interrogation.

Mas Selamat was detained for two years by Malaysia and was eventually transferred to Singaporean custody in 2010, where he remains imprisoned indefinitely.

Pony Poh

Unlike Mas Selamat, over whom a lot of ink has been spilt about his escape and return, more mysterious is the fate of one Pony Poh.

Poh Yuan Nie, also known as Pony Poh, was a principal of a tuition centre who was found guilty of 27 counts of cheating for helping six foreign students cheat during the 2016 GCSE O-Level examinations.

As part of an elaborate scheme, Poh masterminded a scheme where one accomplice would take an examination and transmit the questions to another pair of accomplices who would work out the answers.

The pair would then send the answers to the six students, who would be wearing concealed smartphones and flesh-tone earphones to receive.

But the plan was foiled when an invigilator noticed electronic sounds and voices coming from one of the students.

Poh was found to be the mastermind of the scheme, and in 2020 was sentenced to four years in jail.

During the trial, Poh's lawyer appeared to insinuate that the offences stemmed from one of Poh's accomplices being a spurned lover, who was in a relationship with Poh for seven years but did not realise that Poh was not a man.

But Poh, then 56, failed to appear in court on Nov. 23, 2022, and in December 2022, the Deputy Public Prosecutor applied to the court for a warrant of arrest for Poh to be executed outside of the jurisdiction.

This allowed for an Interpol Red Notice to be made.

As of January 2025, Poh and about 40 other Singaporeans have Interpol Red Notices against them.

Despite this, Poh has evaded arrest for nearly four years.

Nick Leeson

Nick Leeson will be instantly familiar to millennials of a certain age or, weirdly, die-hard Ewan McGregor fans.

Nick Leeson was the British derivatives trader who famously single-handedly brought down one of the United Kingdom’s oldest financial institutions, Barings Bank.

Barings was founded in 1762 and set up Barings Futures (Singapore) (BFS) in 1986, with Leeson arriving in the country in 1992 as BFS's derivatives operations manager and eventually as a trader.

Leeson’s responsibilities eventually came to encompass front office operations, such as trading, but also back office operations, which processed the paperwork for such trades.

According to The Independent, this allowed Leeson to operate a secret and unauthorised trading account that was referred to as the “88888” account, which he used to hide trading losses.

It came to a head in 1995 when Leeson was betting on the Nikkei Index not falling below 19,000 points, when the 1995 Kobe earthquake hit, causing the stock exchange to plunge, causing losses of nearly S$1.4 billion.

Leeson realised that he would not be able to hide his losses, and chose to flee, first to Kuala Lumpur, and then back to England via Frankfurt.

Between 1992 and 1995, Leeson managed to rack up S$2.2 billion, about S$3.5 billion today, in losses in the account, coming close to being discovered on several occasions but managing to keep it hidden.

The bank was not able to absorb such a loss, causing the over 200-year-old bank to go into administration, and a warrant of arrest to be issued for Leeson.

Leeson was detained in Frankfurt when he arrived, initially attempting to fight extradition, but eventually agreed to return and pled guilty to two charges of fraud and forgery.

He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, during which time his wife would divorce him, and he would be diagnosed with colon cancer.

He was eventually released early on one-third remission in 1999 for good behaviour, and eventually returned to the UK, where he has become a speaker at the after-dinner and keynote speaking circuits.

His actions would inform Singapore's amendments to the Futures Trading Act and take other measures to strengthen its regulatory framework of futures trading.

Perhaps the oddest thing to emerge from this is the 1999 Ewan McGregor film Rogue Trader, where he plays Leeson, which came out the same year he played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode One.

It's a hard film to recommend; you might be better off watching Rogue Trader instead.

David James Roach

Another absconder that was eventually caught was the Standard Chartered robber.

In 2016, Canadian David James Roach robbed the Holland Village Branch of Standard Chartered Bank, making off with S$30,450 in cash.

He had handed the bank teller a note telling her, "This is a robbery, give me money, don't call the police, I have a weapon."

But in truth, all he had done was tuck his hand into an empty sling bag, and pretended that he had kept his weapon there.

Having robbed the bank at 11 am, by 2.40 pm the same day Roach was on an AirAsia flight to Bangkok.

But he was arrested upon arrival in Bangkok, not for the robbery, but for bringing more than US$20,000 in cash in Singapore currency, a restricted good.

Thai authorities declined to extradite him to Singapore, instead deciding to jail him for 14 months, after which they deported him to Canada.

But his route back to Canada took him through the United Kingdom, where he was further detained by UK police who agreed to return him to Singapore, but on the condition that the Singapore government promised not to cane Roach.

Roach eventually pled guilty to one charge of robbery and another of transferring criminal proceeds out of Singapore, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane.

He was granted clemency in 2021 by then-president Halimah Yacob regarding his caning sentence, in order to fulfil the assurances given to the UK government that allowed Roach’s return.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) seized a personal mobility device (PMD) that was caught on camera speeding in the Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE).

Two people were seen riding the PMD.

In a Facebook post on Aug. 13, LTA wrote: "The device was seized within 3 days of the incident. Investigations are ongoing."

Triggered KPE speed camera

Dashcam footage shared by SG Road Vigilante showed two persons riding the PMD as it overtook several vehicles in an expressway tunnel.

The incident apparently occurred at around 7:15pm on Jul. 12.

PMDs are not allowed on all roads in Singapore.

A flash of light was also caught on video when the PMD riders negotiated a bend.

This was likely in response to beating the speed limit of 70kmh to 80kmh in the tunnel.

The PMD, which appeared to lack a registration plate, was then seen approaching the south-bound Airport Road exit.

Motorised PMDs are to have a maximum speed limit of 25kmh.

All registered PMDs must display an LTA-issued registration mark at the front or sides of the device.

LTA also said its officers spotted 310 offences and impounded 100 non-compliant devices during various enforcement operations targeting errant cyclists and device users last month.

A former mosque caretaker and a cleaner in Malaysia have been fined RM5,000 (S$1,565) each by the Melaka Syariah High Court after pleading guilty to attempting to have illicit sex in a mosque's mortuary room.

Mohd Rafi Abu Samah, 48, a widower with four children, and Norhaslinda Hashim, 51, a married mother of eight, will each serve 18 months' jail if they fail to pay, according to The Star.

"You could have been washed there straight away"

Judge Mawardi Che Man deemed the offence particularly serious due to its location in the mosque’s mortuary room, which is used to prepare the deceased for burial.

He said before passing sentence: "You are lucky you did not end up as corpses while committing the act. Otherwise, you could have been washed there straight away."

He noted that while the mortuary room is separate from the main prayer hall, it remains within the mosque grounds.

He said: "This is where the deceased undergo their final cleansing before burial. Instead, a grave sin was committed there."

According to Sinar Harian, the judge spent close to 30 minutes admonishing the pair.

He also told them that while adultery can be punishable by stoning under Islamic law, Malaysia’s syariah legal system is “takzir” in nature, with punishments aimed at prevention and education.

The charge

The court heard that the pair had engaged in illicit sexual acts several times in the mortuary room of Masjid Al-Ibadah in Kampung Bukit Piatu between Jan. and Apr., The Star reported.

Despite the multiple incidents, prosecutors filed only one charge against each of them based on the evidence available.

The charge related to an incident between 8am and noon on an unspecified date in Apr., when the pair allegedly attempted to have illicit sexual intercourse despite not being legally married to each other under Islamic law.

How the case came to light

The pair were handed over to the Melaka Islamic Religious Department’s enforcement division at around 4:30pm on Jun. 4, after police received a report alleging rape.

Police investigations later found that the acts were consensual and had taken place on multiple occasions.

Mitigation and sentencing

Melaka Chief Syarie Prosecutor Wan Mahyuddin Wan Muhammad, assisted by syarie prosecutor Radzwan Abdullah, called for a deterrent sentence, citing the sanctity of the location and the positions both held at the mosque.

Sinar Harian reported that in mitigation, the pair's lawyer Muhammad Ammar Yaser Ahmad Nazri asked the court to take into account that both had pleaded guilty voluntarily and understood the consequences.

The court heard Mohd Rafi had no income besides his allowance as a mosque committee member, and resigned once the matter became public.

Norhaslinda has been married for nearly 30 years and earns about RM50 (S$15.66) a day at a restaurant, on top of RM520 (S$162.85) a month as a part-time cleaner at the mosque.

An Indonesian woman, who began by selling Taylor Swift concert tickets, went on to cheat victims of more than S$1.9 million.

In total, she was given 39 charges, according to court documents.

Nila Anggraini Citra Sejati, 32, was sentenced to 8.5 years on cheating charges, among others.

She faced 11 charges with 28 charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

Concert tickets and holidays

The offences began in 2023.

She used her travel booking businesses, Argo Sejati Corporation and Paul Sejati Corporation, to run her scheme.

There were two types of scams: An e-commerce scam, where victims thought they were making real purchases, and a second scam where victims invested in her company hoping for returns with promises to nearly double their money.

She essentially ran a Ponzi scheme, where she used money from later investors to pay earlier ones, and also enriched herself by paying off debt and buying luxury goods.

Nila told victims she could get them flight tickets, hotel bookings and cruise tickets at preferential rates, and that she had Taylor Swift concert tickets for sale.

Victims transferred money to her bank accounts thinking they were paying for actual travel arrangements or tickets.

To make the ticket sales look legitimate, she sent victims forged emails made to appear as though they had come from Ticketmaster.

In one case, a forged screenshot of a Ticketmaster email was sent instead.

She would also make genuine bookings, but make partial payment, leading to cancellations.

The victim who suffered the most losses in this phase lost S$80,285 across 21 occasions between September and October 2023, after being led to believe Nila could arrange discounted flights, cruise tickets and hotel bookings.

Another lost S$21,744 across 12 occasions between August and October 2023 over flight tickets and hotel bookings.

Investment scheme

In 2024, Nila began telling victims she could obtain discounted flight tickets through legitimate commercial arrangements, and that they could earn returns by putting money into her operation.

In one case, luxury bags were added to the offer.

The amounts cheated became far larger.

One victim transferred S$606,800 across 17 occasions between May and October 2024.

Another victim transferred S$344,855 across two occasions in August 2024, believing he would see returns from investing in her discounted flights and luxury bags business model.

Separately, she dishonestly misappropriated S$25,500 that had been entrusted to her.

Most of the victims did not receive restitution.

Her victims included friends and their partners, ordinary travel customers, concertgoers, as well as men she dated.

One of the victims incurred debts that could not be paid off even after liquidating assets and working for more than one-and-a-half decades.

One year after the sudden passing of her beloved only son, a mother in Singapore was surprised to receive a call from the National Organ Transplant Unit.

They wanted to send some tokens of appreciation on behalf of the recipients of her son's organ donation, Queenie Tan told Mothership on Aug. 14.

Her son, 27-year-old Nathaniel Zachariah Tan, passed away on Aug. 12, 2025, from a rare brain condition.

In a final act of selflessness, he donated his kidneys, liver and iliac arteries.

A call one year on

The call from the National Organ Transplant Unit came as a pleasant surprise for Tan, who said the past year had been a difficult period of grief for her.

"I thought they were so kind and so good to want to send their appreciation," she told Mothership.

Tan said the organisation reached out about a week before the anniversary of Nathaniel's passing.

Among the gifts was a thank-you note, which specified the patients who were saved by Nathaniel's donation.

Nathaniel's liver went to a 64-year-old man who was diagnosed with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Meanwhile, each of his kidneys went to a 52-year-old woman and a 35-year-old woman, who were both diagnosed with chronic glomerulonephritis.

Additionally, his donated iliac vessels are stored in the bank and are said to help liver patients during their surgeries.

The recipients can now spend more quality time with their loved ones because of Nathaniel's donation, the organisation wrote.

They also sent Tan a medallion, a jar of origami stars folded by secondary school students across Singapore, and a certificate of appreciation to honour Nathaniel's selfless act.

Tokens of appreciation

Tan shared that this was her first time hearing about those who benefited from her son's donation.

"At that time, I did think about who would end up getting his organs, but after that, I think there is no need to think and worry because he is definitely saving lives. Someone will have a second chance, but we just did not know who it was," she said.

Reading the note and learning more about the impact her son made led her to realise that "a part of him still lives on", she said.

"I was surprised that one year later, there were still people thinking of him," she shared.

After receiving the tokens, Tan headed down to Nathaniel's final resting place at Woodlands Memorial on Aug. 10 to leave them there.

She also took out 27 stars from the jar to signify his age at the time of his passing.

A year of grief and counting

On Nathaniel's decision to donate his organs, Tan said it was a wish that his fiancée, Cheryl Lim, had relayed to her.

It did not come as a surprise to Tan, as she knew her son was a good-natured, loving man who always helped those in need.

A year on, Tan still sees her son everywhere she goes.

She would be reminded of Nathaniel whenever she saw students wearing his alma mater's uniform or took part in church activities.

She felt his absence during family dinners though.

The letter and tokens of appreciation from those who carried a part of Nathaniel were a timely reminder of the impact he had made.

"The next thing I have to do is to live every day meaningfully, until the day I meet him," she said.

A 23-year-old American man apparently “raided” alleged scam call centres in India.

He was accompanied by people dressed as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Tung Tung Tung Sahur”, an AI brainrot character.

SpongeBob SquarePants

In an Instagram video, Justin Ho, a content creator, documented and led the raid in Delhi, India.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Justin Ho (@iamjustinho)

The video has 4.6 million views as of writing.

People appeared as “SpongeBob SquarePants” mascots and were seen crowding around and dancing at the alleged call centre.

People in the office were seen recording the moment as it unfolded.

The SpongeBob mascots also appeared to be dry humping the alleged employees and Ho at one point.

Security guards attempted to remove the mascots from the office and were seen using a stick to beat the SpongeBob mascots.

However, they appeared to be overwhelmed and the cushion in the costumes absorbed the physical assaults.

According to Hindustan Times, Ho said the raid occurred on Aug. 7.

He also claimed that he “got information from inside sources” that the premises was used as a scam call centre.

“Everyone was scared when we first showed up. Then they started laughing,” he said.

Ho has since left India and is currently in Thailand.

Tung Tung Tung Sahur

In another Instagram video, Ho was seen leading and documenting a raid on another alleged scam call centre in India, with people dressed as "Tung Tung Tung Sahur".

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Justin Ho (@iamjustinho)

The video has 296,000 views as of writing.

The mascots were armed with sticks.

The alleged scam centre employees appeared to be amused by the antics and even recorded the incident.

At one point, Ho took out a packet of curry rice, and the group remained rowdy in the office.

The video ended with the mascots rushing out of the office given that “the police is coming”.

Members of the Law Society Council should be given access to the relevant reports prepared by its Audit Committee (AC) so they can have a "frank and constructive exchange" with the organisation's council, said Minister for Law Edwin Tong on Aug. 14.

Allows members to form their own views on the issues

In a statement to the media, Tong said the reports, with appropriate redactions to protect interviewees, should be made available to members so they can form their own views on the issues raised.

His comments come a day after the Law Society (LawSoc) convened a closed-door dialogue with members to discuss the findings of an internal audit and the council's proposed response.

"The AC report raises significant issues concerning workplace culture, as well as the proper administration and functioning of the Law Society from 2022 to 2025," Tong said. "These are matters which should be taken seriously and addressed thoroughly."

He added that meaningful discussions between the council and members must be supported by disclosure of sufficient information.

"It is therefore important for members to have a frank and constructive exchange with the Council, and this has to be supported by the disclosure of sufficient information for the issues to be properly understood and considered," he said.

Tong also stressed the LawSoc's role in Singapore's legal system, saying it has responsibilities to both its members and the wider public.

"It is therefore important that the issues identified in the report are followed through appropriately, with transparency and accountability, and that the necessary steps be taken to strengthen Law Society's governance and functioning."

"This will help maintain confidence in the Law Society as an institution," he said.

Tong further added that the ministry will continue to monitor developments, and will look forward to further updates from the council on the steps being taken to address the issues identified in the report.

Investigation launched after anonymous allegations

The LawSoc's audit committee began investigations after the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and the Ministry of Manpower received an anonymous email in September 2025 making allegations against certain people and practices within the association.

This email was raised by Tong on Aug. 5, in reply to a Parliamentary question about the allegations.

He called the claims "serious and wide-ranging" as they concerned inappropriate workplace conduct, weaknesses in governance and oversight, deficiencies in grievance handling and whistleblowing processes, and shortcomings in internal controls over certain administrative and financial practices.

These matters occurred from 2022 to 2025.

The audit did not find evidence of deliberate financial impropriety or an intentional cover-up, Tong said, but it identified significant failings in leadership, workplace culture, and governance.

He added that the audit committee would invite members to a closed-door meeting in August to further discuss the findings.

According to The Straits Times, the report was not released to members, but was submitted to the LawSoc council, which is the governing and management body of the organisation.

Members call for greater transparency

The closed-door meeting between about 200 members of LawSoc on Aug. 13 reportedly grew tense as they discussed the internal probe into allegations of poor workplace culture and bullying.

Hard copies of the report outlining the findings and recommendations were given out to the members at the dialogue, but they had to be returned at the end of the session, attendees told CNA.

These copies apparently did not contain the complete report.

Several annexes, including further investigation reports prepared by a law firm and an auditing firm, were omitted.

The limited disclosure prompted several members to raise issues of transparency and call for the full report to be released to them.

Some said they would demand an extraordinary general meeting if this request was not met, ST reported.

Attendees told ST that members also questioned why no disciplinary action had reportedly been taken against a former senior employee over allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Petition calling for full disclosure

Prior to the meeting, on Aug. 7, a petition was submitted to LawSoc calling on the association to release the findings to members.

"It bears emphasising that these allegations reported have been by far the most serious the society has faced in its entire history... It will be unfair to members of the society that they be denied the opportunity to read the full investigation report and its recommendations," the petition read, as quoted by ST.

Lawyers weigh in after dialogue

Following the meeting, some lawyers publicly called for greater transparency.

Remy Choo, co-founder and joint managing director of RCLT Law Corporation, said in a LinkedIn post that the dialogue showed there was "much more common ground" within the LawSoc than headlines suggested.

He said members broadly agreed on three things:

1. That members deserve more information rather than less;
2. That fairness to all parties involved requires full context; and
3. That any disclosure of information should safeguard the confidentiality of interviewees and be made with appropriate consent.

Choo said that while producing a full account would take time, the shared principles should be their "guiding light in charting a way forward".

Lawyer Clarence Lun of Fervent Chambers also argued that releasing the full report was necessary for accountability.

"Allowing members to read the Audit Committee report is a step towards transparency," he wrote on LinkedIn.

"But if that report was itself informed by more extensive underlying investigation reports and materials, members should, subject to legitimate confidentiality and personal-data safeguards, be permitted to understand and review that material for their own analysis and determination."

"Accountability must be principled, consistent and even-handed," Lun added.

The Court of Appeal will be reserving its judgement after a 30-year-old former Wah!Banana actor appealed against his jail sentence for raping a woman.

The Straits Times reported the Court of Appeal as saying that more time was required to look over the evidence.

An earlier report mentioned that Lev Panfilov, then 29, was sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail, as well as 12 strokes of the cane on May 19, 2025.

He had been convicted of raping, sexually assaulting and molesting a woman he met on Tinder, and committed the offences in his flat on Jan. 12, 2021.

Defence urged acquittal

In that regard, the defence urged the Court of Appeal to acquit the Russian national and Singapore permanent resident Panfilov of all four charges involving rape, sexual assault, and molestation.

According to a Facebook post by Eugene Thuraisingam, Panfilov has been serving an 11-and-a-half-year sentence, with 12 strokes of the cane yet to be carried out.

CNA reported that the defence argued that the alleged victim's account had material inconsistencies and that evidence she presented had allegedly been fabricated.

Johannes Hadi, who argued the case alongside Eugene Thuraisingam, had pointed to an inconsistency in the woman's account of whether she screamed during the assault.

According to CNA, since the case had no witnesses, the key issue was whether the sexual encounter was consensual, as maintained by Panfilov, or not, as the woman alleged.

The complainant's evidence had to be "unusually convincing" to convict in such a situation.

It was a legal standard that Justice Pang Khang Chau had previously found satisfied, which resulted in his conviction of Panfilov.

However, CNA reported that Panfilov's latest set of lawyers argued on Aug. 13 that the standard had not been met.

Screaming

According to the Facebook post, Hadi noted an inconsistency in the woman's account of whether she screamed during the assault.

She had told a doctor, in verbatim contemporaneous notes, that she screamed during the assault.

The woman added that Panfilov had then choked her with his hands and pressed a pillow on her head to stop her screaming.

But she testified at trial that she had wanted to scream but did not, and a flatmate who was home that night said he heard no commotion.

ST reported that the court had accepted that during the incident, there had been at least one other person, Panfilov's flatmate, in the house.

"On this point, there is a discrepancy between what she said to the doctor and what she said in court," the judges said.

"If the contention is that she did scream, it then runs into a problem with the fact that there were at least one or two witnesses in the flat at the time.”

Whether the woman had told the doctor if she screamed came into play as when the case went to trial, the woman said she meant she had wanted to scream, ST reported.

The doctor had also reportedly made a mistake and misunderstood her, resulting in her accounts being inconsistent, the woman said.

The court said: “If she had screamed, others would have presumably heard it. There is certainly a doubt of whether the evidence changed because of the significance of surrounding evidence.”

To that, ST reported the prosecution as saying they accepted that the doctor's notes were, in all likelihood, accurate.

"We can’t go beyond the evidence. Our submission is simply the victim may have misspoke. Our position was that there was a misunderstanding."

Bloodied underwear

According to CNA, Hadi also argued that woman had initially told police there was no evidence of rape, before later producing a pair of bloodied underwear retrieved from a laundry hamper.

The defence argued the blood was consistent with her period, which began two days after the alleged assault, rather than an injury,

It was a distinction the Health Sciences Authority said could possibily have been tested by external parties, but was not, the Facebook post stated.

Hadi also said the woman cried at home after the rape upon seeing blood in her underwear while taking it off.

Though she explored making a police report a few days later, she decided not to in fear of not being believed since there was no evidence of the assault, she told the officer.

"This is very peculiar, for someone to go to the police and say they are worried they wouldn’t be believed as there was no evidence... knowing there was a pair of bloodied panties at home," the post stated Hadi as saying.

Memo

ST reported Hadi as arguing the woman visited a doctor around four days after the assault to ask for a memo to state she had suffered vaginal injuries and had been raped.

When the doctor rejected her request, given she would first have to make a police report, the woman asked the doctor to cancel any records of her visit.

"This is not a minor detail," said Hadi.

"Asking for a memo was the predominant reason for her visit to the doctor. The doctor's evidence was that when she declined to provide the memo, (the woman) did not even accept any medication for her pain."

Text messages

Chief Justice Menon said that he was troubled by the pair's exchange of text messages following the incident, as well as the Panfilov appearing to be content for the woman to leave.

"I mean, if what had just happened was a violent rape, one would've thought there'd be concerns, if the person who had apparently tried twice to flee, whether that person would go to the police," he added.

CNA reported the woman's evidence as Panfilov texting her after she left his flat, where he asked how everything was and whether she had arrived home safely.

To that, she responded positively.

CCTV footage

The judges also raised the CCTV footage of the pair in the lift lobby of Panfilov's apartment, ST reported.

She had been seen almost without a hair out of place, they said.

This was in the context of the woman saying in her statement that she was suffering from a 10-out-of-10 pain from the assault and that Panfilov had manhandled her.

CNA reported that the defence, did not push that point any further based on concerns of stereotyping how victims of sexual assault react.

However, the Chief Justice intervened.

Lawyers are advised not to make arguments that amount to victim-blaming or questioning why victims may react a certain way, given that trauma responses can vary widely. But Chief Justice Menon said this did not apply in this case.

Instead, analysing the CCTV footage was a matter of considering the physical evidence, which was relevant to the case.

The woman had said her hair was "manhandled" during the assault, but this did not appear to be the case in the footage, CNA reported.

ST reported the court as saying: "My point is if you’ve been through that and you’re not disheveled, one would expect an explanation. But if there's no explanation, then it is inconsistent with the account of what had happened."

The prosecution responded that the woman had explained her hair was not easily messed up due to its nature and texture.

She added being able to walk without difficulty after the assault and had tried to manage her pain internally.

A teenage boy, 15, on trial for the murder of a 16-year-old girl at his school in Malaysia has expressed remorse in court, after the High Court ruled there was a prima facie case against him.

He was 14 when he allegedly committed the murder.

The High Court made the ruling, according to China Press, moving the case into the defence stage.

The six-day prosecution stage of the trial began on Aug. 3 and concluded on Aug. 11.

Testified standing beside the dock

The boy's lawyer, Kitson Foong, said that because his client is a minor, he did not sit in the dock, but stood beside it and gave his testimony unsworn.

According to Malaysia media, the lawyer said: "He also said he was sorry for what happened and for the consequences, including the death. After that, we went straight into the opening statement."

The boy is set to testify.

He was deemed fit to stand trial following a three-month psychiatric assessment.

Defence to argue mental state

The defence will also call on a doctor at a psychiatric hospital in Perak, as well as a forensic psychiatry consultant, to support a defence for insanity.

The magistrate's court had earlier referred the boy to the psychiatric hospital, the defence lawyer said.

He added that the doctor had submitted a written report, which the court has accepted as evidence, and that the proceedings focused on explaining its contents and the psychiatric concepts involved.

The murder charge carries the death penalty, or jail of not less than 30 years and not more than 40 years, and 12 strokes of the rotan upon conviction.

However, the death sentence cannot be imposed on an individual who was a child at the time of the offence, New Straits Times reported.

Background

A 14-year-old male student allegedly stabbed and killed a 16-year-old female schoolmate, Yap Shing Xuen, in a secondary school toilet in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, on Oct. 14, 2025.

The suspect, who faced a murder charge, was later ruled fit to stand trial following psychiatric evaluations and pleaded not guilty in February 2026.