KOTA KINABALU: A security guard at SMKA Tun Mustapha denied that any bullying incident took place in the early hours of July 16.
Security guard Linah Mansoding, who was on duty from 8pm on July 15 until the next morning, said she did not receive any report of Zara Qairina Mahathir being bullied or beaten.
Lawyer Azhier Farhan Arisin, who is representing one of the five teenagers linked to Zara’s case, questioned the 65-year-old about Zara who was found unconscious and later died the following day.
Azhier: You told the court that during the night and the next day you were patrolling Zara’s hostel?
Linah: Yes.
Azhier: Did you see any students being hit or bullied?
Linah:No. When I went to refill my water bottle, there were no sightings of any students. I flashed my torchlight around, but no students were around.
The sixth witness in the inquest also told Azhier that she did not see Zara being put into a washing machine.
Zara, 13, was found unconscious on July 16 near a drain at the ground floor of the hostel and pronounced dead the next day.
The security guard, who has worked at the school since 2012, said she took a picture of Zara at the scene.
As the lighting was poor, Linah said the photograph — which later became an exhibit in the inquest — was not very clear.
She said Zara was wearing a blue and white shirt and pants with the school logo. She was without a tudung, shoes or slippers when she was found.
Linah said she slightly touched Zara’s cheek in an attempt to wake her up and pulled down her shirt to cover her body before calling the chief warden Ustaz Azhari.
“I only realised her foot was broken when the ambulance came and the medical personnel asked to turn on the lights, I had to use my handphone light,” she said, adding that the medical team bandaged Zara’s head, placed a cervical collar and fitted a splint on her foot.
Linah also testified that she took a picture of the ambulance leaving the school at 4.14am on July 16.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
