GEORGE TOWN: Police have detained a college student and her boyfriend, both 18, to assist in investigations into an incident in which a newborn was flung out of a 13th floor apartment unit in Farlim here, this morning.
The teenage girl, believed to be the mother of the newborn, was picked up from her family's apartment unit at about 11.55am.
She had apparently kept the pregnancy a secret from her family.
The unemployed boyfriend was detained at his house in Jalan Penawar here at about noon, after the girl admitted to having had sexual intercourse with him.
Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Soffian Santong said police were alerted to the incident at about 8.25am by a resident at the apartment block who had stumbled upon the dead baby girl on the fourth floor parking lot.
"Following an investigation, the girl revealed that she had woken up at 6am today with a stomach ache. About 30 minutes later, she went to the bathroom to try to defecate. While she was pushing, the baby fell into the toilet bowl. She heard the baby's tiny cries.
"She then wrapped the baby in the T-shirt she was wearing. She then threw her out through the back window," he said.
The baby's body was badly mutilated by the impact of the fall.
It is learnt that several members of the girl's family were at home at the time of the incident, but did not realise what had happened.
Soffian said both the girl and her boyfriend will be brought to court for a remand order to further assist police in the investigation.
"The case is being investigated for murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code," he said.
The baby's remains were sent to the Penang Hospital for a post-mortem.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Nizam Bakar, 46, who lives on the seventh floor of the building, said he was alerted to the incident by the apartment's WhatsApp chat group at about 8.18am.
Ahmad, who is the secretary of the apartment's residents association, said he went down to the fourth floor to check out the commotion and found the baby lying face-down on the ground.
"I then called the security guard to bring me some boxes to cover the baby, while another resident lodged a police report.
"From what we saw, the baby's head was smashed and her brain shattered. There were pieces of flesh on the wall," he said.
Ahmad said he knew the girl's parents, whom he said were very nice people, but seldom talked to her.
This is the second such case here in two months.
On May 13, a newborn was thrown out the window of a fourth-floor flat at Persiaran Mayang Pasir 5 here, hours after birth.
Miraculously, the baby girl survived when it landed on the roof of a unit below.
Her 18-year-old mother and her boyfriend were detained to assist in the investigation.