2007 09: Girl changed after assault

The Star online. Metro. North. Thursday September 13, 2007

By K. KASTURI DEWI

PENANG: She used to be a very happy and ac-tive child but these days Loh Irene Khancana, 12, is short-tempered, does not want to leave her house and is even afraid of going to school.

She also complains of giddiness, is hard of hearing and suffers from bouts of pain on the left side of her head.

Last month, Loh received 60 stitches on the left side of her head when an 11-year-old boy whacked her on the head with a stick.

She was playing with two of her friends in a playground at Padang Tembak in Air Itam be-tween 5pm and 7pm on Aug 3 when the incident happened.

“The boy was lighting firecrackers and throwing them at me and my friends.

“We asked him to stop and when he didn’t, both my friends wanted to pick a fight with him but I managed to stop them.

“All of a sudden, I felt something hard on my head and when I turned around, I saw the boy standing behind me holding a very big stick,” she said at the press conference called by state DAP legal bureau chief Jagdeep Singh Deo.

Also present was Loh’s mother M. Jahindi, 42, a hotel employee.

Loh said a neighbour sent her to the Penang Hospital and a CT scan on the brain showed that she suffered from frontal bone fracture haemorrhage.

She was admitted from Aug 3 to Aug 7 and is due to go for an operation on Nov 19 to replace the brain’s frontal bone.

Loh said she only knew the boy from school and did not have any misunderstanding with him.
Jahindi said she lodged a police report at the Kampung Baru police station on the same day.

“My daughter was supposed to return to school on Sept 7 but she is still afraid, in case she sees the boy in school,” she said.

Jahindi also said that her daughter managed to sit her Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) but could not remember anything.

“The boy’s parents and the boy came to visit my daughter. His parents apologised but the boy refused,” she added.

George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid said police would wait for the outcome of the investigations before deciding on the next course of action.