New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 28 March 1989

Second judgment won't be in appeal

KUALA LUMPUR, Mon. -- A mother and son convicted for drug offences today successfully applied for the exclusion from their record of appeal the grounds of judgment of the Penang High Court handed down 15 months after their conviction and sentence.

New Zealand housewife Lorraine Phylis Cohen and her son Aaron Shelton are appealing against their conviction and sentence on Sept 1, 1987.

Lorraine, 45, was sentenced to death for trafficking in 140.76gm of heroin and Aaron, 22, was sentenced to life imprisonment and six strokes of the rotan on an amended charge of possessing 34.61gm of heroin.

They were found guilty of committing the offences at the Singapore Airlines counter at the Bayan Lepas International Airport about 5.10pm on Feb 9, 1985.

The Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice of Borneo Tan Sri Lee Hun Hoe, today granted their application for an order that Mr Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah's judgment of Sept 1, 1987 be the one included in their record of appeal and not his grounds of judgment dated last Dec 10.

Tan Sri Lee, who sat with Supreme Court judges Datuk Mohamed Yusoff Mohamed and Datuk Gunn Chit Tuan, said the court would give its reasons later.

Counsel for the two, Mr Karpal Singh, afterwards told reporters that his clients' petition of appeal will be filed during the second week of April.

Mr Karpal Singh argued before the Supreme Court that the Dec 10 judgment, which was 25 pages long, ought not to be included in his clients' record of appeal.

He noted that Justice Dzaiddin had delivered a written judgment and not an oral one on Sept 1, 1987 and that it was signed and dated.

Tan Sri Lee expressed concern as to what would happen if the court were to allow a judge to write more than one judgment.

"He writes a judgment, then he says he will write another judgment. What would happen? We will be made a laughing stock."

Tan Sri Lee also commented that Mr Justice Dzaiddin did not state in his first judgment there were more reasons to come.