Court of appeal upholds conviction, death sentence on man who beheaded father

A three-member Court of Appeal bench, chaired by Judge Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, made the ruling in a unanimous decision after dismissing the appeal by You Poh Khoon, 57, to set aside the conviction and sentence on grounds of insanity.

"The court found the conviction and sentence by the (Ipoh) High Court (Ipoh) is safe. Therefore, the appeal is dismissed and the appellant still has the opportunity to appeal to the Federal Court," said Judge Kamaludin sitting with Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Azman Abdullah.

You was charged with murdering his 74-year-old father, You Su Kim, between 3 pm on Oct 8, 2018, and 10.30 am the following day in a house in Khatan Baru Chemor, Ipoh, Perak.

The charge, framed under Section 302 of the Penal Code, provides the death sentence upon conviction.

On May 24 last year, the Ipoh High Court sentenced You to death by hanging after he was found guilty of killing his father.

According to media reports, You killed his father by severing his head and chopping his body into six parts after the old man scolded him for consuming drugs at home.

The victim's head was buried in the backyard while the body parts were dumped into a 1.5-metre-deep sewage hole.

Earlier, lawyer Amir Faliq Mohamad Jamil, representing You, submitted that although the prosecution had called a psychiatrist (Llyod) who confirmed that his client was sane at the time of the incident, the doctor did not rule out the possibility of temporary insanity, if there was drug addiction.

He said based on the psychiatric report, You tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine.

The testimony by six prosecution witnesses also proved that You temporarily lost his sanity during the incident due to drug consumption, said the lawyer, who was assisted by lawyers Siti Nor Syahidah Ismail and Afina Abdul Hakim.

Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Azmi Mashud submitted that during the medical examination at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, Perak, the psychiatrist confirmed that at the time of the incident, the appellant was not suffering from any mental illness.

"The appellant at the time of the incident was sane and knew the nature and consequences because at the time of the incident, the appellant was able to drive a car for more than 100 kilometres and detail the incident and what he did to the deceased," he added.

According to Muhammad Azmi, the testimony by the six prosecution witnesses that the appellant became insane due to drugs was only through their observations.

"All the witnesses were not experts who could determine the appellant's mental state at the time of the incident and during the defence proceedings, no witness contradicted the psychiatrist's testimony that the appellant was sane at the time of the incident," he added.